


mafia of your dreams

by aeterna_nox



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: A little spooky, Alternate Universe - Detectives, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Crime Scenes, Detectives, Investigations, M/M, Mentions of suffocation and drowning, Murder Mystery, Paranormal, Supernatural Elements, a bit of crack, mentions of blood and death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:28:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27188644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeterna_nox/pseuds/aeterna_nox
Summary: A suspicious string of murders, each crime scene looking more impossibly carried out than the last, start occurring after an ambitious rookie detective Mingyu joins Jihoon's department. Strangely enough, the victims all seem to be related to Jihoon and he soon realizes that the past that he tried so desperately to hide may just be coming back to haunt him.
Relationships: Kim Mingyu/Lee Jihoon | Woozi, Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Chan | Dino, Lee Seokmin | DK/Yoon Jeonghan
Comments: 12
Kudos: 22
Collections: SVT Fear Exchange





	mafia of your dreams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thanku4urlove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thanku4urlove/gifts).



> Hello~!! Just wanted to say that this was an amazing prompt, and I definitely enjoyed planning it, but sadly the craziness of life made me rush the story a bit since it's about multiple murders. I apologize for any mistakes in advance, but I hope you all (especially my wonderful giftee) enjoy the storyline anyways! I also added some crack to lighten up the story a bit, so I hope you don't mind to have some humor in it. Please read till the end and I hope you enjoy at least some parts! :)

_The First Night_

_Night has fallen and the entire city is asleep. Well, almost entirely. A young intoxicated woman pushes open the backdoor of a nightclub and stumbles out, barely able to stabilize herself as she steps out into the cold air._

_It has been quite a while since she last had a ladies' night out with the girls and she went all out, taking twice the amount of shots than her friends. Earlier, she was feeling very much alive, dancing her heart out on the dance floor, just until up to a few minutes ago when the not-so-fun part of drinking hits her with nausea and the most excruciating migraine._

_She intakes a deep breath of the cold crisp air and sighs. Boy was it a good idea to step out and take a breather. With her head feeling woozy and her eyes getting hazy, she turns to look down the dimly lit alleyway she’s in. Squinting her eyes, she spots a lonely shadowy figure standing still about 30 feet away to her right._

_Before she can even have thoughts on the mysterious figure, the churning in her stomach intensifies and she lurches forward as her chicken tikka masala starts making its way back up her throat. Leaning against the brick wall of the next building for support, she hunches over and retches._

_After getting that out of her system, she wipes her mouth and turns to where the figure was standing. They’re gone. Shrugging it off, she decides to go back inside only to find out that it's locked. Groaning in annoyance, she flops down onto the chill floor with her back leaning against the wall. She closes her eyes to rest for a moment, before a loud thud startles her. Taking a look around, she doesn’t find anything that could have caused the noise but decides to leave the creepy alleyway anyway. She gets up and starts making her way to the front entrance staggeringly. Along the way, she whips out her cellphone and barely manages to call a friend that was inside the club. When the friend doesn’t pick up she hopes that the bouncer will recognize her and let her back in._

_The street lights suddenly start flickering as she walks under them, and an eerie feeling dawns upon her. It feels like someone is watching her. She swings her head around and sees the mysterious figure from earlier, slowly approaching her from afar. Call it paranoia, but something about that person just doesn’t sit right with her._

_The sound of her heels goes clicking against the pavement as she power-walks as fast as her wobbly legs could carry her. A crack on the floor follows through with misfortune as her heel gets caught and she falls over._

_She lets out a scream for help as she senses it hovering over her, but it gets lost into the night_ _—_ _drowned out by the booming music of the club. As the weight of doom befalls her, she becomes still._

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

_The name’s Jihoon. Lee Jihoon. It's been five years since I left the hellhole of a precinct and convinced those neanderthals to let me start my own department. They said there’s no such thing as a private consulting detective, but they agree solely because they need me. They always need me. This city would be run down into the ground if it weren’t for me. It seems like the agency has completely lost their minds, based on who’s about to walk through those doors._

On cue, he hears the door swing open and footsteps walking in, but he remains still facing the window.

“Greetings detective. Officer Kim Mingyu reporting for duty.”

When Jihoon doesn’t respond, he clears his throat and continues. “On behalf of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, I am honored to announce that I have been transferred to this department.”

Silence again. Jihoon can almost feel Mingyu’s blood pressure start rising as he continues to stare out the window without acknowledging his presence.

“Detective Lee?”

Jihoon raises the cup of coffee up to his lips and takes a sip. He sighs in satisfaction he’s hit with the sweet sweet bitterness of his black coffee. 

Mingyu clenches his teeth, clearly frustrated. “I was sent by Sergeant-”

“I know, and I don’t care.” Jihoon finally says, cutting Mingyu off. “I work alone, so please kindly leave. Preferably through the door that you came through.”

“You didn’t even know what I was going to say,” Mingyu retorts.

Jihoon turns around and looks at Mingyu with a raised eyebrow. “Oh? Do I not?”

He notices a look of uncertainty fly across Mingyu’s face and a small smirk tugs on his lips. 

“There’s no way you would know…”

“Let me take a wild guess then.” Jihoon sets down the coffee on his desk before leaning against it and folding his arms. “The Commander didn’t like how I handled the case in Turkey so he decided to keep me away from international affairs and plans on keeping me on domestic cases. He stresses this to Sergeant Choi, and knowing him, he probably got onto it right away and picked a rookie to keep me under his radar. He knows that a rookie filled with passion and drive would definitely drive me insane so he picked you.”

Mingyu blinks twice as fast in disbelief. “Someone from the department told you, didn’t they?”

“If you don’t believe me, then I’ll try something else.” He gives Mingyu a once-over and clicks his tongue. “By the looks of your formal attire, I can easily tell that you’re a rookie detective that was out to impress.”

Mingyu scoffs, “You already knew that I was a rookie because I told you that.”

“No, you only said your name. Oh, and even forgot to say your title. Another big hint, cause that’s the most rookie move. Even for a police officer.”

As Mingyu tries to remember what he said, Jihoon continues his analysis. 

“By the looks of your eyes and how you hold up yourself, I can tell that you are probably highly respected by your colleagues. Perhaps, even Sergeant Choi. You don’t look like you want to be a homicide detective, but you took this opportunity because you hope that it’ll open up the doors for you to join the Missing Persons Department. Am I right?”

“H-how’d you know?” Mingyu stammers.

Jihoon glances down to Mingyu’s arm that was hanging on the side of his leg. “The bead bracelet. It does not correlate with your attire at all, and it looks a little worn out so it must hold some sentimental value. I’m assuming it’s either a younger sibling or a lover? That, or you love children.”

Mingyu frowns and doesn’t respond as he pulls his sleeve down to hide the bracelet. If he had known that his new boss was a sociopath, he probably wouldn’t have agreed to this.

Jihoon’s phone goes off, breaking the short moment of silence, and he digs into the pocket of his coat before pulling it out. Giving it a quick glance, he shoves it back in his pocket before walking past Mingyu and heading towards the door. He opens the door and stops to look back at him for a second with an almost disdained expression on his face.

“Like I said, I work alone. So do yourself a favor and go back to work for those clowns.” 

With that, he steps out and leaves Mingyu alone with his disheveled thoughts. He stands there for a minute, trying to process what just happened and how on earth that someone like Detective Lee exists. Although he's admittedly slightly intimidated, just slightly, something stirs inside him that makes him scoff. Call it the passion of a rookie like Detective Lee mentioned, but Mingyu isn’t about to get scared off that easily. If someone is going to finally stand up to that stick-in-the-mud, it's going to be him. With a newfound determination, he heads towards the door, grabs the doorknob, and swings the door open.

Mingyu miscalculates his strength and the door ends up making a loud bang as it hits against the wall, making the man at the front desk jump in the air.

“OH SWEET MOTHER OF-”

“Sorry! Sorry!” Mingyu apologizes, as he goes from being confident back to being meek. “I didn’t mean to do that…”

The man straightens up in his chair as he clears his throat and adjusts his round glasses. “Well, be careful next time,” he says, pretending like he didn’t just get the living daylights scared out of him. 

Mingyu bites his lip and nods. “I will, Mister-. Uh…I’m sorry, but what was your name again?”

“Oh! Sorry! I didn’t properly introduce myself earlier when I let you in, did I?” He pops up from his chair with the brightest smile Mingyu has ever seen and extends his hand. “I’m Lee Seokmin, the police clerk of this fine establishment.” 

Mingyu grabs his hand and gives it a firm shake. “Nice to meet you, I’m Officer Kim. Just transferred here from the Seoul Department.”

Seokmin’s eyes widen and a wave of pure excitement hits his face upon hearing the name as he starts to bombard Mingyu with a thousand questions about the department. His friendliness and a seemingly overflowing amount of energy makes Mingyu really feel the shift in temperature after encountering the coldness of the detective and meeting Seokmin. As he tries his best to politely answer as many questions as he can, he looks around for the smartass tiny grouch.

“Say, do you happen to know where the detective went?” 

“Oh, Detective Lee? He’s gone off somewhere again. Said something about a nightclub…?”

“He’s gone already??” Mingyu leans to take a peek out the windows near the front door. “He was literally just here a few minutes ago…”

Seokmin lets out a deep sigh and gives him a reassuring pat on the shoulder before returning to his desk. “Yeah well, you’ll get used to it soon enough!”

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

As soon as Jihoon arrives at the scene, he assesses the situation immediately. A few officers are standing in front of the police tape and making sure that nobody goes through and the specialists are busy marking pieces of what could potentially be evidence. He keeps searching until his eyes land on one person he’s looking for, the first responding officer who appears to be speaking with a witness. How does he know who the first responding officer was? Well, let’s just say that’s why that officer is probably the only other somewhat competent person around here.

Jihoon goes off to the side and lifts up the tape before ducking under, ignoring the glares from the officers on watch. 

“So what’s for breakfast today?” Jihoon asks sarcastically as he walks up to the guy.

The officer stops mid-conversation to greet his senior. “Detective Lee! I see that you got my text.”

“Of course I did. That’s what cellphones do, they receive texts.”

The officer sighs, “Well, would it kill you to reply? Or at least turn on your ‘Read’ receipts?” 

Jihoon raises an eyebrow and clucks his tongue. “Are you really trying to test me today, Officer Lee Chan?”

Chan straightens up upon hearing his full name. Stifling a cough, he tries to change the subject. “Um so, you’re a little late today. What happened?”

Jihoon rolls his eyes and groans in annoyance. “The Sergeant sent a giant baboon to our office.”

“A baboon?!” Chan exclaims as his eyes widen in confusion and shock.

Jihoon sighs, “You’ll see for yourself soon enough. Anyways, the food?”

“O-oh, right! So the person that reported the crime was a bouncer from the SVT Club.” He nods over to the gentleman that he was just talking to before continuing. “He said that he was just taking a break and going out to the back for a smoke when he found the body around 6am. Thought that the lady had just passed out drunk, but realized that she was dead when he tried to shake her awake.” 

Jihoon narrows his eyes in deep thought and nods as he notes the information down. “Any details on the people she came with?”

“Yeah, after he called the police we had the entire club on lockdown. We had the bouncer point out who he thinks the lady came with. He’s not too entirely sure since a lot of people go in, but if we can crack the girl’s phone then maybe we can confirm it?”

Jihoon looks over Chan’s shoulder where he sees two young girls huddled in blankets on the ground and trembling with tear-stained faces. “It’s not them, so that won’t necessarily be needed.”

Chan’s eyes widen as he’s taken aback by his firm deduction. “What? How do you know?” 

Jihoon doesn’t answer his question and walks past him towards where the victim’s body was lying against the wall. “Hey you, big guy!” 

The bouncer looks around before pointing at himself. “Who, me?”

“Yeah, you! I’ve got a few questions to ask of you.”

The man furrows his brows, not liking Jihoon’s tone at all. “I’ve already answered all the questions to that other officer. I don’t need to tell you nothing.” He huffs, crossing his bulky large arms.

“Great! You don’t need to tell me nothing, so why don’t you be helpful and tell me something!” Jihoon says sarcastically while mocking the bouncer’s choice of words.

The bouncer looks uneasily over to Chan who simply returns him with an approving look to just do what Jihoon says.

As Jihoon waits for the bouncer to grudgingly drag himself over to him, he squats down to examine the corpse closely. He takes out his latex gloves before slapping them on and gently brushing the girl’s hair to the side to get a closer look at her neck that appears to have red marks.

“Ligature marks,” a deep voice from behind him says.

Jihoon turns his head to see Mingyu bending down and looking over his shoulder.

Mingyu turns to look back at Jihoon and smirks. “Surprised to see me?” He searches for a sign of any shock or surprise on Jihoon’s face, but does not find any. 

Jihoon looks back at him unamused before shifting his attention back to the victim. “Expected you to be a little faster at finding me, but I guess I overestimated you.” He says, earning a big ol frown from Mingyu. “Anyways, you’re right about the marks. Seems like there were signs of struggle, but the question is where is the weapon?”

“We couldn’t find any wires or ropes nearby that could’ve been used to strangle the victim,” Chan chimes in as he walks up to them.

“Well, tell your team to keep looking. The killer always makes a mistake and usually tries to get rid of the weapon close by so they don’t get caught running away with it.” Jihoon says as he starts examining the victim’s hands. “Have everyone check the trash bins again,” he orders.

As Chan relays the message over to the other officers, Mingyu pops in a question. “Any clue on who the suspects might be? Is it this guy standing over here?” He asks, glaring at the bouncer who was just slightly shorter than him.

“Are you trying to accuse me, pretty boy?” The bouncer huffs, puffing out his chest and lifting up his chin while returning Mingyu’s glare.

“Did she have a purse on her?” Jihoon interrupts, without a care of what the baboons are going about.

“Yes, the forensics team already bagged it.” Chan replies as he slowly starts inching away from the two big guys who are both still having an intense staredown.

Putting both hands on his hips, Jihoon shakes his head at Chan disapprovingly. “What did I say about letting me take a look at the evidence first?” 

“Well...I told them to leave the body here and that’s the most important thing-”

“No,” Jihoon curtly says. “Do I need to remind you why I specifically recruited you?”

Mingyu’s perk of curiosity makes him lose his staring game as he turns his gaze towards the young officer.

Chan shifts his weight onto one leg as he slips his hands into the pockets of his trousers and smiles smugly. “Well, it would be nice to hear a compliment from you.”

“The young ones are always so prideful…” Jihoon tuts. “Just go get me that purse. It’s circumstantial evidence.”

Knowing that he won’t be able to win this fight, Chan leaves and Jihoon gets back to investigating the body.

“Alright big guy, your turn.”

Mingyu steps forward as he straightens his coat. “How may I assist you, Detective?” 

Jihoon waves him off without looking back. “Not you, ya baboon. The witness. If you’re going to stick around, then at least learn your name.”

Before Mingyu can complain, the bouncer smirks as he passes by him. “Yeah, big baboon!” He teases, making sure to “accidentally” bump into his shoulder. 

Jihoon rolls his eyes before beginning his questioning. “So, tell me exactly what you witnessed.”

The bouncer crosses his arms and shrugs. “It wasn’t much really. I’m sure that Officer already told you what I told him. I just went out the backdoor around six in the mornin' for some fresh air-”

“Yes. To smoke.”

The bouncer freezes for a short moment before continuing as if he didn’t just hear that. “Then I saw the little lady slumped over against the wall with some puke lying next to her.”

“I was wondering why it smelled horrible.” Mingyu chimes in, scrunching his nose in disgust. “Just thought it was the trashcan.”

“Hey! I’m trying to tell my story here! Anywho, I’m used to this kind of stuff so I went to check if she was okay. Kept her at an upright position and all so she don’t choke on her own-”

“So you’re saying that you found her exactly in this position?” Jihoon asks. “Perched up against the wall and slightly slumped over?”

The bouncer huffs. “Why does everyone keep interrupting me?!”

“As if you have anything more to say aside from checking her pulse and realizing that she’s dead.”

The bouncer opens up his mouth to refute, but shuts it quickly after thinking about it. “You got me there...But yeah, I swear that I didn’t try to move her or nothin’. Just maybe shook her a little. I immediately called the police and left her as I found her.”

Jihoon gets up with a grunt and rubs his chin as he tries to visualize the scene and how it might have played out. “This just doesn’t make sense…”

Mingyu nods in agreement with furrowed brows. “Based off the angle of the ligature marks, the perpetrator would’ve had to come from behind and above her.” He says as he mimics putting a cord around his own neck to try to compare and visualize it. “So if the witness is telling the truth, then…”

“The killer moved the body.” He and Jihoon say in unison, turning to look at each other as they realize it.

“But why…?” Mingyu wonders out loud. “If the killer was going to risk getting even more prints on the victim or risk getting seen with the body, why didn’t he try to hide it? There’s a dumpster right behind this wall.”

The bouncer shrugs, “Maybe they didn’t see it?”

“Oh, but even if they didn’t they definitely would’ve smelled it. In addition to the victim’s upchuck.” Jihoon points out.

Mingyu pinches his nose at the reminder of the foul smell. “Speaking about that, how are both of you not affected at all? I’ve been breathing through my mouth this whole time.” 

“Ah, I thought you just had a nasally voice.” Jihoon jokes, earning a very unamused frown from Mingyu. “Also, it’ll take more than just measly smells to faze me.”

The bouncer just shrugs. “I told ya that I’m used to this kind of stuff.”

“Enough about the smells,” Jihoon shouts. “The important question now is where did the actual crime take place? Which spot, and how did the killer move the body?” He looks around at the surrounding ground for any visible signs of trace markings. 

“Oh no need to do that, Detective," Mingyu says, "On my way here I already searched the premises for any suspicious markings on the ground. There were no signs of a body getting dragged within 30 feet of where the body was found.”

A small smile tugs on Jihoon’s lips as he lets out a chuckle. “You know, maybe the baboon can be quite resourceful after all.”

Finally getting some recognition that he deserves, Mingyu does a little suave spin to celebrate. His ending pose, however, is not as smooth as he loses his balance and nearly falls onto the corpse if he hadn’t used his long arms to catch himself using the brick wall behind it. He holds his breath as his face is just inches away from the crown of the slowly decaying head.

Jihoon takes out a notepad from his coat and whacks Mingyu’s head with it. “You fool!! You almost contaminated the evidence!! I take back what I said.”

As Mingyu struggles to get back up on his own, Chan approaches the group with a giant ziplock bag in hand. “I can hand over the evidence sheets later when we receive the autopsy reports from Dr. Yoon."

Mingyu turns to Jihoon with a raised eyebrow. “Dr. Yoon?”

“Dr. Yoon Jeonghan. A medical examiner from a neighboring department. He just transferred there a few months ago, but he’s been giving us a hand.” Jihoon says as he carefully takes out the black purse from the ziplock bag before tossing the plastic aside.

Chan nearly manages to catch it before it hits the ground. “No littering at the crime scene!” When Jihoons gives him a questionable look, he cowers back a little before meekly adding a “Sir.”

Without any hesitation, Jihoon begins to dig through the purse as Chan and Mingyu huddle closely next to him. He groans in frustration as he continuously feels around the purse that feels like a black hole at this point. “Where is it?? Oh here, this is for you,” Jihoon says as he takes out and carelessly tosses the victim’s cellphone at Chan who stumbles to catch it.

“What are you looking for?” Mingyu asks, and his question gets answered as Jihoon successfully pulls out the object and lifts it up in the air.

“Ahh, here it is!” 

Mingyu stares at the silver circular band with a confused expression on his face. “A ring?”

“A lover. Oh, actually…” Jihoon spins the ring around, examining it closely. “Actually, two lovers.” 

“Two??”

Jihoon gives Chan the purse to hold as he reaches in and pulls out another ring. “Two lucky winners.”

“How do you know she just doesn’t wear two rings?” Chan asks.

“Look,” Jihoon says as he lifts up both rings for everyone to see and twists it around. “Judging by how clean it looks on the inside you can tell that she takes them off often. It also has little scratches on the outside so you can assume that when she’s seeing the other person, she dumps it somewhere in her purse. You can say that maybe they’re for different fingers, but as you can see they’re both the same size. They’re also both different colors and even I know that it’s not the norm to wear both gold and silver jewelry on one hand.” 

Mingyu narrows his eyes as he thinks. “So...if either of them knew that she was two-timing them, then…”

Jihoon nods as he puts the rings back inside the purse and takes out the victim’s wallet. “Then there’s a motive.”

“Alright, I’ll have my team look into it and see if we can locate her lovers,” Chan says as he gets called over by another officer. “I’ll be right back, but Detective Lee please don’t take away any evidence again and return it back to me…”

Jihoon gasps sarcastically as if he got offended. “Who, me? Why, I would never take something away from the police. Also, give me that handphone back.”

Chan gives it to him with a questionable yet stern look before leaving with the bag and the witness following behind him.

Mingyu puts his hands “You’re not going to give those back to him, are you?” 

“Nope!” Jihoon replies, popping the p. “Well, not if I find something useful in here.”

As Jihoon starts digging through each pocket in the wallet, Mingyu tries to confirm something that he was wondering about earlier. 

“So, that officer...he-”

“Wait...I think I know her?” Jihoon exclaims, interrupting Mingyu. He glides a finger across her name on her driver’s license as a flash of recognition flies across his face.

“You do?”

“She was…” Jihoon pauses and coughs awkwardly as he forces himself to swallow the embarrassment. “Ms. Park was someone that I got dared to ask out to a dance in high school and was rejected by…” He says trailing off towards the end.

As much as Mingyu wants to point fun at the great almighty detective, he keeps his mouth shut knowing that this is not the time when that woman in question is now dead. 

“I’m sorry, it must be hard for you...”

Jihoon straightens up himself. “It’s alright. She rejected me in the most humiliating way and it seems like things turned out to be different for us in the end.”

Mingyu puts his hands on his hips, narrowing his eyes and shooting the most judgeful looks at him. “Hey now, don’t say that. Have some respect for your old classmate.” 

Jihoon rolls his eyes, groaning dramatically. “And exert that much effort into trying to care? No, thank you.” 

They hear a whistle from a distance and see Chan nodding them over to get some help with packaging the evidence. When Mingyu turns back to look at Jihoon, he’s already gone. 

“Hey, Rookie!” Chan shouts, getting his attention. “He’s probably heading back towards the office! Come help us pack up and we’ll meet him there.”

“Mind you, I’m still a higher rank than you are,” Mingyu grunts loudly as he still goes to help out anyway.

Chan gives him a friendly pat on the back. “Come on, don’t be so old-school! Relax a bit!”

Mingyu shoots him a warning glare, but Chan is unfazed by it. It still wasn’t as frightening as Jihoon’s.

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

A few hours later, everybody’s gathered back at the office. Jihoon has his door locked so the other three settle for chit-chatting as they wait for the results from the forensic team.

“Wait, so in Detective Lee’s department…There’s Lee Seokmin and Lee Chan…? Why is everyone a Lee?? Is this a family business or something?” Mingyu exclaims in confusion.

Chan leans back against Seokmin’s desk and shrugs. “Well, Seokmin here thinks it’s fate, but I think it’s just a coincidence.” 

Seokmin crosses his arms. “Of course, it’s fate!”

“Or perhaps he recruited you guys purposely because you might share the same ancestors or something?” Mingyu suspects, trying to stir up a conspiracy. 

Chan opens his mouth to refute, but then he stops himself. “Actually, you may be on to something there."

“Well no matter what it is, at least we are all together now!!” Seokmin says cheerfully, pulling both Mingyu and Chan from the left and the right into a tight side hug. “A Kim or a Lee, we are now one team!!”

A loud click is heard and Jihoon’s door gets kicked open. “That’s weird. I swore I was the boss around here. Who said that the baboon could stay?”

Seokmin’s eyes go huge. “Oh my god. You guys brought in a baboon?? Where??” He releases Mingyu and Chan from his grasp as he swings his head from side to side to look for it.

“Can you lower your voice? We’re standing right in front of you.” Jihoon sighs loudly as he rubs his temples. “Remind me again why I hired you...”

Seokmin falls silent and looks away awkwardly. “I uh…” He coughs and avoids eye contact with everyone as his ears start to grow pink. “I would rather not talk about that.”

His anxiousness quickens Jihoon’s memory and it goes off like a light bulb. “Ah, I remember now!” He exclaims, a mischievous smile growing on his face.

“Please Detective…Not here.” Seokmin begs in a low whisper.

“Lee Seokmin, I met him at a coffee shop a few years ago when I was on a stakeout. As I was about to leave, his leg that was sticking out tripped me and I had spilled coffee over his laptop.”

Seokmin, who was biting his nails, pauses for a moment to raise his hand and interrupt. “Wait, didn’t you trip yourself?”

Jihoon ignores him and continues, clearly enjoying seeing Seokmin suffering from this, “He had been writing up a storm and was screaming like a complete maniac when his laptop started malfunctioning. Out of courtesy, I memorized everything he had written so far before his laptop shut down. In fact, I still remember clearly what it was.” 

He clears his throat as he recites from memory, “Kendall threw Logan against the wall and leaned in close as he whispered, ‘Any kind of guy you want boy, that’s the kind I’ll be.’ He then looked down at his sweet lips and-”

“Okay, let’s stop there please!! I think they get the point.” Seokmin shouts as his face and ears turn completely red. “I was young back then!”

“Oh, really? I quite enjoyed the most recent chapter you uploaded though.”

Seokmin’s panicked eyes instantly switch to sparkly eyes full of expectation as he looks at Jihoon in surprise. “Aww, really? Wait, how did you know that I still write stories?”

Jihoon laughs, giving Seokmin a firm pat on the shoulder as he walks past him. “I didn’t until now.” He whispers, making Seokmin’s eyes go wide as saucers again. “Thanks for letting all of us know.”

“So…” Mingyu begins, trying to make things less awkward for the completely flushed boy that sat back down at his desk and tried to hide behind his computer. “So you saw how he was an experienced writer and decided to cast him to do your reports?” 

Jihoon grabs a cup and pours himself some water from the cooler. “Precisely.” He takes a sip of water and clears his throat again. “He’s my Watson.” 

Chan tilts his head in confusion. “Who? Emma Watson?” 

“No, he means John Watson. From the Sherlock Holmes series.” Mingyu explains.

“Thank you.” Jihoon shakes his finger at Mingyu approvingly. “So you do know your stuff, eh?” 

Meanwhile, Seokmin pouts as he realizes that Jihoon hasn’t been comparing him to Emma Watson this whole time. “You guys continue to talk. I’m just going to go ask Jeonghan hyung when he thinks the reports will be ready,” he says sulking even more with slumped shoulders.

Mingyu turns to Jihoon and tilts his head. “Jeonghan? Oh right, the medical examiner you mentioned earlier. How did you end up recruiting him?”

Before Jihoon can even open his mouth, Chan steps forward. “Hey, wait! What about my origin story?”

Jihoon waves him off. “It’s not interesting in any way, so it’s not needed.”

His mind changes when Chan puts on the sulkiest face as he crosses his arms with a humph. Jihoon knows already that if he doesn’t try to fix this now, Chan is going to give him the cold shoulder for the next day or two. “Only if the rookie insists,” he says.

“O-oh right. How did you end up recruiting Officer Lee? I remember you guys briefly mentioning it back at the scene.” Mingyu asks, trying to help. 

“You have a good memory,” Jihoon notes. “Hopefully you’re also good at remembering things that aren't nonsense too.”

As Mingyu scowls, Jihoon continues. “Well I’m sure you already heard from Sergeant Choi, but we’ve worked on a lot of cases together. He just admires me too much and is always begging for my expertise, so I just go along with it.”

“Ahem! Stick to the topic!” Chan coughs out.

“Ah right. Anyways, there was a chain of murders happening around the Jeolla Province area two years ago around March. Every crime scene went to, Officer Lee was always the first one to arrive. As you all should know, the first responding officer has the most crucial job of keeping witnesses in the area, keeping the evidence intact, and most importantly...seeing the entire scene before it can get tainted by anyone else.”

Chan nods as he looks off to the distance with his chin held up high and rests his hands on his hips. “They used to call me Lightning McLee.”

“Yeah...I still don’t think that’s something you should brag about, kid.” Jihoon feels his hands and toes curl in second-hand embarrassment. “Anyways, I simply recruited him because he’s fast. I don’t trust the force, so I needed someone who sees it all first. So I requested for Sergeant Choi to have him transfer to a division under the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. He’s under them on paper, but he’s mainly working under me.” Jihoon rubs his chin thoughtfully. “I’m actually surprised that you two haven’t met yet.”

Mingyu shrugs. “We’re probably just not in the same division. Also, for the past year, I’ve been training and studying for the exam to get promoted to become a detective.”

Chan nods as he puts a hand on Mingyu’s shoulder and gives it a good rub. “It’s good to have someone else from the agency here too,” he says with a smile.

Jihoon lets out a fake laugh before growing serious. “Again, I ask, who said that he was staying?” 

“Hey come on, Detective Lee!” Chan whines. “He would be a great addition to the team! You gotta admit that he’s quite knowledgeable and experienced. Also…” He goes over to Jihoon and leans in to whisper in his ear. “Also, you could make him do all the tough dirty work for you.”

Jihoon glances at Mingyu who is looking at them with a determined burning look in his eyes. 

_His confidence and intuition may be helpful for interrogations and for observations..._

“Alright, fine. He can stay.”

Everyone gets pleasantly surprised by Jihoon’s decision, especially Mingyu who’s eyebrows goes up so high they can probably reach the sky.

“Just for a while though,” Jihoon quickly adds. “For a couple of months to see how he’s doing.” He walks straight up to Mingyu with a piercing cold gaze, intimidating him. “But don’t get in my way, you big baboon. Three strikes and you’re out. _Capisce_?”

Mingyu gulps and nods slowly as he feels his entire body tense up. If looks can kill, he would be a dead man right now.

“Good.” Jihoon backs away and turns around, smiling triumphantly as he struts back into his own office and thinks about the long days ahead that will be coming for Mingyu.

Seokmin, who is still on the other side of the room, sighs thoughtfully. “Some _quiche_ does sound pretty good right now.”

Thanks to his mishearing, the tension in the room dissolves and gets replaced with a fit of laughter right as Jihoon goes into his office and shuts his door. 

_It seems like things are about to get a little more interesting around here._

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

To “test his skills,” Jihoon makes Mingyu pair up with Chan to handle the interrogations the next day. Using Ms. Park’s phone, he's able to figure out the nicknames of the victim’s lovers and passes along the information to Chan’s team. He clears one of the lovers when he tracked their phone and found out that they have been in Japan for a business trip for the past month. So in the end, the suspects that he has the police call includes the victim’s mom, her stepdad, and her other lover.

Chan isn't too thrilled to hear that Jihoon “borrowed” a piece of evidence, but he gets excited when he finds out that he doesn't have to sit through another interrogation with him. In fact, he seems a little too happy right now. Finally, today, he gets to play bad cop when questioning the suspects.

Jihoon monitors the interrogation through the glass window and watches as Chan attempts to frighten one of the victim’s boyfriends by slamming his fists on the table while demanding an answer from him. “Why did you kill her?!?!”

Jihoon sighs as he rubs circles against his temple. It’s times like this when he wonders if the young officer has even learned a single thing from him. Like he hasn’t ever raised his voice at a suspect like that…

_Yeah, he probably learned it from Sergeant Choi._

Luckily, to Jihoon’s surprise, Mingyu turns out to be actually quite well-versed in the interrogation process. For the entire time, he keeps his cool, calmly delivers each question, and makes the suspect elaborate where it’s needed. Aside from the occasional useless questions he would ask and from not paying close attention to the suspect’s body language, he’s doing decently well for a rookie detective.

After the end of the interrogations, the team gathers together at the end of the day to go over the information they retrieved. Jihoon goes over the autopsy report that Jeonghan sent in through a courier, Mingyu goes over the notes he made, Chan goes over the results from the forensics team, and Seokmin records everything down.

They are flying through the topics quickly, and Jihoon doesn't like it. Aside from the fact that the victim's heart appeared to have been enlarged or weighed more than the norm, there doesn't seem to be anything out of ordinary on the autopsy reports. Since the cause of death was suffocation, Ms.Park could have gone into a cardiac arrest before dying-which would explain the heavy heart due to left ventricular hypertrophy.

The forensic team reports aren’t satisfactory either. They weren’t able to get any prints or find a weapon at the scene. The extreme lack of evidence is insanely suspicious and it makes Jihoon wonder how skilled this killer must be to pull this off.

Whoever the perpetrator is, it’s definitely not any of the suspects they interrogated today. Ms.Park’s boyfriend had no idea about the two-timing and Jihoon was able to tell from the look on his face that he wasn’t lying.

“There’s no motive for him,” Jihoon says during their discussion, and Mingyu crosses his name off the list. “The stepfather though...he’s another story.”

“He has a motive?” Chan asks.

Jihoon bites his lip as he’s deep in thought. “Rather than a motive, I would say that he and the victim didn’t have the best relationship.”

Mingyu leans forward, intrigued. “What makes you say that?”

“It’s pretty obvious,” Jihoon says. “He’s an alcoholic. Pretty cliche, if you ask me.”

Seokmin looks up from his laptop as he’s typing. “Oh yeah. In stories, the stepdad is always a drunkard.”

Jihoon explains how he concluded that fact as he tells them how he noticed a hint of alcohol smell on the mother’s clothes, but not from her breath when she greeted him before entering the interrogation room. This sparks something in Mingyu’s memory as he recalls remembering that the stepfather rarely opened his mouth, had yellowish eyes, and broken capillaries around his nose.

“Her mother said that her daughter moved out after she remarried though,” Mingyu mentions. “So there’s no reason for the stepfather to go follow her to a club and kill her when she’s already out of the picture.”

Jihoon taps his chin with his pen. “No reason...Unless she had some dirt on the stepfather?”

“Guys, guys.” 

Everyone turns to Chan who just stood up abruptly. 

“What if...the killer is actually the bouncer? I mean like we can’t find the weapon anywhere and he was allegedly the first one at the scene.”

Seokmin covers his mouth, gasping dramatically.

Mingyu, on the other hand, raises an eyebrow as he stares at the young officer with a perplexed expression. “So you’re saying that he killed her and self-reported?? Now that I think about it, he was being a little aggressive towards me...”

Silence falls for a brief moment before a loud sigh breaks it. “You’re not going to become a profiler at this rate, Officer Lee,” Jihoon says as he pinches the top of his nose bridge and shakes his head disapprovingly. “Although he may not seem to be the brightest bulb out there, only a complete amateur would self-report when the body is hidden in such a secluded alleyway. What we’re dealing with, is no amateur.”

Mingyu nods in agreement, before adding in his two cents. “He also could have easily gone back inside the club and pretend that he never stepped out for a smoke. Though if there were security cameras in the area...that would help a lot.”

“Ah, yes. The forensics team sent it over to me this morning.” Jihoon pulls out his phone from his pocket and gives it a few taps before handing it over to Mingyu. 

“Hey, wait...Why didn’t they send it over to me?” Chan asks disappointedly as he checks his own phone.

Jihoon ignores him and continues. “There’s only one camera angled on top of that emergency side door and the body is located at a blindspot. All you can see is the victim going outside, catching glimpses of them hurling and sliding down against the brick wall. If you fast-forward, the door only ends up opening again half an hour later when the bouncer discovers the body. His testimony checks out.”

Chan and Seokmin huddle behind Mingyu as they watch the footage over his shoulder, seeing how everything goes down the way Jihoon says it did.

When the video ends, Chan’s shoulders slump down as he frowns dejectedly. “So...what can we do now? We have nothing.”

“And we can’t really do anything by law regarding the alcoholic stepfather either…” Mingyu points out, mirroring Chan’s expression. “We should have some officers keep tabs on that household. Especially since the mother just lost her daughter…”

Jihoon snatches his phone back from Mingyu’s hands and scoffs. “You know that the agency would never waste the use of officers like that.”

“I know…” Mingyu sighs as he lowers his head and furrows his eyebrows in frustration.

Jihoon notices the sudden somber mood of the room as everyone is looking down with worried conflicted faces. Not being used to seeing such a cheery bunch be like this, his mouth suddenly starts moving before he realizes it. “I’ll pull some strings…” He mumbles underneath his breath. 

They all turn to look at him, and only Seokmin asks, “What?”

Jihoon forcing a cough, he continues, “I said, I’ll have some associates that can help us keep an eye on that house for time-being. If you’re all really that worried about it...”

Everyone perks up almost immediately as they each turn to look at him with lit-up eyes, making Jihoon clear his throat awkwardly at the sudden attention. 

“For now, everyone, keep on looking into the case. Officer Lee, work with your team to see if any piece of evidence was missed. Detective Kim, see if you can find anything on the Park family and Ms.Park’s friends.”

They all stand up from their seat and salute him. “Yes, Sir!!” They shout, loud and proud, as he passes by them with a poker face and heads straight for his office.

“Wow, that was surprisingly considerate of him?” Mingyu says, looking baffled, after making sure that Jihoon shut his door.

Little does he know that Jihoon can still hear everything. He just tends to pretend that the walls are soundproof so he can catch when Seokmin and Chan talk behind his back.

Chan nods uneasily in agreement. “It’s so unlike him to meddle in with affairs that aren’t necessarily relevant to the cases he’s given.” 

Seokmin slings both his arms around their shoulders. “Hey! Detective Lee may be a heartless cold-city man at times, but I’m sure that he cares about the lives of citizens!! Maybe not their well-being, but I don’t think he’s a bad guy that doesn’t care if someone dies.”

“And he does know the victim too…” Mingyu adds, trailing off as he glances sympathetically towards the glass windows of Jihoon’s office that were covered by closed blinds.

A loud ding diverts their attention as Seokmin puts his arms down to take out his phone from his back pocket. “Stop lollygagging and get back to work,” he reads. 

Chan sighs as he slaps the paperwork in his hands, “Back to the work grind.” 

As he gets ready to leave for patrol and Seokmin heads back to his desk, Mingyu is left standing in the middle of the room. “Wait, where should I be stationed?” He asks, realizing that he needs his own workspace.”

Seokmin shoots Jihoon a text to ask, and almost immediately, a phone in the room vibrates. However, this time, it’s Mingyu’s phone.

Mingyu squints as he reads the text, “The Breakroom.” He seems ready to throw a fit and demand some respect, when he realizes something that scares him. “Wait...how did he get my number?”

Jihoon snorts as he peeks through the blinds as the other two reassure Mingyu that he’ll get used to it. With a deep sigh, he turns away to his pinboard and starts attaching bits of information they’ve gathered so far with the case.

_This one won’t be easy to solve._

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

_The Second Night_

_Once again, night has fallen in the city. Awake lies a man in his later years, having another one of those nights of cursed insomnia. He sits up from his bed and grabs the bottle of sleeping pills on his nightstand. Taking the glass of water his maid had left next to it, he pops a pill in his mouth and gulps it down._

_He sits and listens, but hears nothing except the sound of crickets and cicadas chirping outside his large bedroom windows. Wishing to hear something, he gets out of bed and decides to make use of the time. Might as well since he’s awake._

_The man shuffles towards his wooden grand piano, pulling out the bench before sliding in. As he sits, he cracks his knuckles and wants to play something...Anything. Yet, nothing came to mind._

_He stares blankly at the black and white keys as they seemed to be mocking him with their dusty appearance as if they haven’t been touched in days-perhaps even weeks. Even the old music sheets he had propped up on his piano’s music desk seemed to be making fun of him as the spaces between the treble clefs seemed to be making some sort of FACE at him._

_Still, he forces himself to play. After all, he has to submit a demo for his client’s song by the end of the month._

_His slim fingers press down on a few chords and when it doesn’t suit his taste, he tries another. As he goes from major to minor keys, he begins to grow frustrated when he’s unable to find the right sound that he wants. Why can’t he ever get it right? It doesn’t matter in the end anyways…_

_Feeling hopeless, he leans down on the keys, laying his head on top of his elbows. As his weight falls on his elbows, an obnoxious booming sound emits from the piano. He closes his eyes and wonders if he will ever be able to escape, to escape from this prison they call paradise._

_He hears a faint click at a distance, and he lifts his head while turning his head slightly towards the door._

_“Marie? Is that you?” He calls out to his maid._

_The man is about to stand up when he feels a small draft fly past him. That’s peculiar...The air conditioning wasn’t on and the windows were completely shut. A soft murmur tickles his ears and he spins around quickly, only to find nothing there._

_As he tenses up in paranoia, he feels a light tap on his shoulder. He looks behind his back to find the intruder with a sinister smile spread across their face as they dragged a finger on the flat side of the blade they were holding._

_“It’s not nice to trick people now, is it?”_

_The man moves as fast as he can, trying to run towards the closest exit which was the giant windows. As the intruder chases after him, he tries to use the giant velvet curtains to his advantage by pushing it towards the intruder and hoping to hide himself within the sheets._

_He manages to get through the curtains and as he reaches to unlock the latch of the window, he feels himself get yanked backward by the collar of his pajamas._

_Within the next few minutes inside that one bedroom, there’s a lot of rustling and then…_

_Silence._

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

Days _—_ no, weeks _—_ pass by and the team still hasn’t been able to get anywhere with Ms. Park’s case. The only information they manage to dig is just more of the background history of this family and how toxic the environment has been for the victim. They don’t have much time to dwell on it anyways, as they’ve just been called in for this new and bigger case.

“So...this guy’s famous? I mean, was famous?” Mingyu asks, following after Jihoon and stepping over the police tape with his long legs. 

A look of disbelief flies across Jihoon’ face. “Are you serious? You never heard of Composer Yoo? Do you live under a rock or something?”

“N-no! I just…I just don’t always look at the credits for songs, okay?” Mingyu confesses, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Typical,” Jihoon mutters under his breath as he enters the mansion and heads towards the master bedroom.

They meet up with Chan who was helping out with facilitating the investigation by the doorway. Like usual, he gives the detectives a quick-rundown of the scene.

Chan explains how the composer’s maid, the only other person that resides in the mansion, went to bring Mr. Yoo breakfast like every morning and found the door to be locked. 

“She said that the composer usually locks his bedroom door at night to prevent interruptions and usually unlocks it when he wakes up in the morning or when she knocks. When there was no response from him this morning, she assumed that he was sleeping in and came back in the afternoon to bring him his lunch. She realized something was wrong when he still didn’t respond after banging on the door so she ran to get the spare key and found his dead body.”

“A locked room murder,” Jihoon hums. “Now _this_ is exciting.”

Mingyu side-steps away from Jihoon judgingly before asking Chan, “So, there’s no signs of any invasion?”

Chan shakes his head, “Nothing so far…”

Jihoon moves his head to the side to look past him. “Is Sergeant Choi here? Usually he likes to stick his nose in big cases like these.” Like Chan said, there doesn’t seem to be that many evidence markers or tags within the room. 

_It seems like this may just be another case with a lack of physical evidence._

“Nope, he’s on vacation. So I’ve been taking over.”

Jihoon scoffs, “A vacation? Sure. It’s not like he’s taking time off because he’s scared of what I might do to him after giving me a handicap.”

“But that’s why we called you two,” Chan continues. “Take a look around the room to see what you might be able to find. If you need me, I’ll be checking in on the specialists in the maid’s room.”

Chan doesn’t have to tell them twice. Jihoon is already on the move, snapping on his gloves as he takes a closer look at the picture frames hung up on the walls. The pictures show the same three people growing up over the years, and Jihoon can tell by the way they’re dust-free that he cares deeply for them. 

He slides open the closet next, finding a giant cardboard box inside that’s filled with objects that completely shocks him. Squatting down, Jihoon pulls one out from the box and stares at it silently as it dawns upon him of what this might mean—of what kind of person his favorite composer might have been.

“Are those...trophies?” Mingyu asks, peeking over his shoulder.

Jihoon traces his finger over the words on the plaque. “He just won this Composer of the Year award last year. It’s an honorable prize, yet here it is...not displayed and sitting in a cardboard box while collecting dust.”

“Oh, that is quite weird…” Mingyu says, tilting his head to the side. “If I were him, I would have put it somewhere where it could be easily seen. I guess he just didn’t care about prizes?”

Jihoon sighs and puts the trophy back into the box. “Didn’t care and wasn’t proud of them.”

“What are you trying to say? Why wouldn’t he be proud of it?”

Jihoon ignores him and whips out his phone to send a text to Chan asking if he can have his team locate the victim’s laptop and get into his emails.

Mingyu taps his foot in annoyance and is about to complain when a soft voice interrupts him. 

A young man around their age dressed in a lab coat approaches them. “It’s been a while, Detective Lee.”

Jihoon looks up and smiles, putting his phone away and standing up. “Ah, Dr. Yoon! It’s a pleasure seeing you here. I was hoping to see you during the last case, but was disappointed when you only sent the autopsy reports.” 

Jeonghan hums, “Ah yes, I was feeling a little under the weather back then. And that case seemed quite self-explanatory after the post-mortem examination, so…” He pauses when he notices Mingyu standing there. “So who’s this?”

“Oh this?” Jihoon asks, his smile fading away immediately. “He’s just a rookie that Sergeant Choi assigned to me,” he says a matter-of-factly, earning a scowl from Mingyu.

“Excuse me, but I am a human being,” Mingyu says, clearly offended for being referred to as “this.” His expression changes immediately as he turns to Jeonghan with a friendly smile, to make a good first impression, as he outstretches his hand. “Hello Dr. Yoon, I’m Off-Detective Kim. I just transferred about a month ago from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.”

Jeonghan mirrors his smile and slips off one of his gloves before giving Mingyu’s hand a firm shake. “Ah, you can just call me Jeonghan if you’d like. Dr. Lee here just likes to use formalities while on duty.”

“Alright, Jeonghan Hyung it is,” Mingyu says as he turns to Jihoon and raises his eyebrows as if he’s trying to show that he’s already liking the medical examiner more than him. “You can call me Mingyu or Gyu for short.”

“So, Mingyu,” Jeonghan begins, a small smirk spreading across his face as he puts his glove back on. “Do you like to brag to everyone you first meet that you’re from a big agency?”

Mingyu’s face flushes as he lifts up his hands in defense. “What?? No, I-I wasn’t trying to imply anything. In fact, I have a deep respect for medical examiners!”

Jeonghan and Jihoon snicker, bumping elbows as it grows into a fit of laughter. 

“I was just kidding! We’re all too old to be jealous over childish things like that. Now, come. Enough chatter, let me inform you both about the body. I do have to warn you that it may be a tad bit gruesome.”

Jeonghan leads them over to the other end of the room where the piano was. On top of the grand instrument lies the body with the Composer Yoo’s head laying his head straight down on the keys with his hands perched to the sides. On his back, there’s a clear gashing wound that is surrounded by a circle of dried blood on his sleepwear.

When Mingyu takes a closer look at the deceased’s hands, he jolts and immediately covers his mouth in horror. The fingers are spread out, but a few of them are obviously missing.

“It appears that this is a penetration wound that is likely caused by stabbing. By the looks of the shape of the cut, the weapon used to commit the murder is likely to have been a double-edged one. From what I’ve observed so far, there appears to be no other signs of trauma. Like per usual, we will conduct the autopsy to confirm the cause of death. Though it’s highly likely that the victim died of excessive bleeding based on how there’s a pool of blood on the carpet below the body.”

Mingyu jots down his notes quickly before using his pen to point at the victim’s hands. He clears his throat uncomfortably as he asks, “Um, what about his fingers?”

“Ah yes, they seemed to have been chopped off quite brutally with a sharper clean-cut weapon. According to our calculations, he’s missing four fingers.”

“Well of course, he only has six now,” Mingyu says, not taking any more jokes. He turns to Jihoon and asks, “Message from the killer?”

Jihoon simply nods as he whips out his notepad and pen. “His fingers fall on certain keys. Which are…” He scribbles a few letters down before continuing, “C, F, A on his left and D, E, A on his right. Now if you unscramble them, they spell…”

Mingyu copies the letters down on his notepad and starts trying out different combinations. “CAF and ADE?” He guesses, before it finally hits him. “Wait...What if it’s not two separate words, but one?”

Jihoon’s eyes light up at the revelation. “Facade. Facade! It makes sense! It’s coming all together now.”

“What? What is?” Mingyu asks, still confused even though he just helped solve it. 

“Sajaegi,” Jihoon answers in a low whisper, feeling his throat burn as the word leaves his mouth. “Chart manipulation. The songs he composed for were often on the TOP 10 of music charts. This is the reason why he got killed.”

Mingyu tilts his head to the side, feeling uncertain. “Look, I didn’t know him too well, but that is a huge accusation you’re making there.”

“That’s why I asked Officer Lee to get into Composer Yoo’s emails,” Jihoon replies, turning towards the door as Chan comes running in as if on cue.

They all gather around the laptop as Jihoon points out how it’s already suspicious that his inbox is so empty for someone who should be in constant communication with individuals from the music industry. After doing some digging, he manages to find an email of a wire transfer confirmation that Composer Yoo forgot to delete. A large sum of money appears to have been sent to another party and the very next day, the song shot up the charts. 

“Judging by how he takes care of those picture frames of his grandchildren more than his awards, his reason for chart manipulation has nothing to do with fame,” Jihoon points out. 

“It seems like it doesn’t have to do with money either,” Chan adds. “Although his house is huge, he barely owns anything. He barely even has any groceries stocked.”

Mingyu scrunches his face as thinks it over. “Not much visitors, but he shows love for his grandkids...So the chart sabotage was just to get their attention?”

Jihoon snaps his fingers, “Bingo. So the maid and Composer Yoo’s usual competitors shall be questioned. Now let’s go and get to work.”

“Wait, hold on,” Mingyu says, daringly putting his arm out to prevent Jihoon from walking away. “Before we go, there’s one thing that has been bothering me...If a stabbing occurred here, why isn’t there a cast-off anywhere to be found?”

“A cast-off?” Chan repeats, looking up at the ceiling as he tries to recall what that familiar term means. 

“Cast-off, projected blood patterns.” Mingyu holds up an invisible knife and makes a stabbing motion as he explains, “If the perpetrator stabbed the victim on the back and yanked it out, then droplets of blood from the weapon in motion should transfer onto the wall or the piano here.”

Chan shrugs, “It could have been wiped off?” 

“It seems unlikely that the killer would waste time wiping off the blood before escaping,” Jeonghan remarks. “It already takes a long time and effort to remove an impaled weapon from a body.”

Mingyu nods, “They also had to escape while making sure that the room remained locked.”

“And this is all for the forensics team to take care of,” Jihoon says as he gestures to Chan. “We will carry on the investigation of the suspects tomorrow after we get our evidence list. For now, let’s get back to the office and get to work,” He shouts, getting more and more impatient by the second.

As he turns to leave, a friendly familiar face with a dazzling smile comes waltzing in with his hands full.

“Hi everyone!” Seokmin says in a sing-songy voice. “It’s a little hot out today so I thought that I’d bring everyone some drinks. I brought some refreshing lemonade, water, and Detective Lee’s coffee from his favorite cafe.”

Jihoon sighs deeply. It feels like he ages every time he interacts with Seokmin. “No drinking or eating allowed at crime scenes, Seokmin. This is why we don’t let you come along!”

“But your coffee, Sir…” Seokmin says, pouting as he holds up the cup.

With a huff, Jihoon grabs it and storms out while grumbling.

“Well, somebody has mood swings…” Mingyu comments, as Seokmin quickly shrugs it off and begins happily passing out the drinks.

Taking a bottle with one hand, Chan pats Mingyu’s shoulder with the other. “He’s not used to having unsolved cases, let alone two. Detective Lee just doesn’t want to waste any more time.”

Mingyu groans. “I should probably follow him back to the office, shouldn’t I?” 

“Wait, but what about lunch?” Seokmin asks. “I thought that we could all go get some since it’s noon.” 

“Sorry, Seokmin. Maybe another time,” Mingyu says with an apologetic smile before scurrying off.

Seokmin looks at Chan with puppy eyes, but the young officer looks away. 

“I probably have to help my team prepare the evidence lists for Detective Lee...Sorry hyung, but thanks for the drink!”

As Seokmin’s shoulder slump, Jeonghan steps forward, “I’ll get lunch with you, Seokmin-ah.” 

A blush creeps up on Seokmin’s face as he makes eye contact with him. “Thank you, Jeonghan hyung. You are always the only one that accepts my lunch invitations.” He pulls out a lemonade from his bag of drinks and hands it over to Jeonghan. “Drink?”

Jeonghan gently smiles and pushes it away. “Lemonade is too sour for me. I’ll take a water, thanks.”

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

As Mingyu just gets back to the office, the doorbell rings and a bubbly voice shouts, “KPS delivery!”

When he opens the door, he’s greeted by a man in an all-yellow jumpsuit with crested-moon smiling eyes and a wide grin plastered on his face. “Oh, hi! I’ve never seen you before. Are you new?” He asks, full of energy.

“Uh yeah, I just started last month.”

“Well, welcome aboard! I don’t work here, but I’ve been delivering to this office for almost a year now so it feels like I’m part of the team too. Say, speaking of the team, is the officer here today?”

“Uh, no. He’s still at the crime scene, why?”

The man starts laughing loudly as if he was trying to hide his flustered state. “Oh, no reason! Here’s your package. Have a good day!” He shouts, handing over the large package.

“You too, uh-” Mingyu takes a second to glance at the delivery guy’s name tag, “Soonyoung.”

Soonyoung cheerfully waves as he runs off, leaving Mingyu to bring in the package inside himself.

“Oh, it’s here,” a more level-headed Jihoon says as Mingyu struggles with keeping the door open as his hands are full.

Once he gets in, Mingyu tosses it aside with a grunt. “Could’ve used some help.” 

Jihoon tuts in dissatisfaction. “You should be more careful with that.”

“What is it anyways?” 

“See for yourself.”

After a quick unboxing, Mingyu pulls out pieces to build a chair and a small plastic folding table. “What is all this for?”

“For you, you big baboon. You’re always complaining about not having your own desk, so I got you one. And since you proved yourself to be helpful, I’m allowing you to set up your little new desk inside my office room.”

Mingyu lifts up the bag filled with the chair pieces. “This looks like the same one from the breakroom. Why didn’t we just take it from there?”

“We can’t do that, because I know that you broke the bottom part of that chair!” Jihoon exclaims tongue-in-cheek. “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice it wobbling?”

“Well…”

Jihoon crosses his arms, “It’s not called a breakroom because you can break things in there. You should feel lucky that I was generous enough to buy you a new chair and a new desk. Feel free to start putting it together while I compile a list of Composer Yoo’s adversaries.”

They continue to bicker like this for the next couple weeks. Unfortunately, like the other case, this one doesn’t get very far either. Composer Yoo’s competitors all end up having a solid alibi and the maid falls into the stage of grievance where she won't stop crying. The weapon is nowhere to be found and the forensic team hasn’t discovered any useful fingerprints or footprints. Things seem to continue to get dimmer as night arrives again.

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

_The Third Night_

_He wades through the water while humming in relaxation. Leaning backwards, he floats with ease and sighs as he closes his eyes._

_This is nice. Tomorrow, his life is going to change drastically with one decision he’s going to make and right now feels like the calm before a storm. Over and over he recites the words he plans to say tomorrow in his head._

_“I want to join the marines.”_

_Only six words, but he knows that his current Commander won’t be happy about him wanting to make the switch. The thought of his dagger-piercing glare and his sharp chin popping out_ _—_ _like it usually does when he’s not happy_ _—_ _makes him gulp. He hopes that his ear won’t get yelled off nor would he have to have a face-to-face talk with the bottom of his Commander’s boot._

_He flutters his eyes open and heaves his upper body forward, getting back to an upright position. As he kicks his legs and moves his arms to stay afloat, that’s when he notices the ripples in the water coming towards him. Confused, he spins around slowly to see what may be causing them. However, there was no sign of life in sight._

_Filled with sudden curiosity, he starts moving towards the epicenter of the ripple to investigate. He reaches the middle of it, but nothing is there. That’s when he feels the sudden tug on his leg._

_He frantically kicks in the water in shock, shaking off whatever was trying to get a hold of him, and starts swimming away. He feels yet another tug, this time stronger, and utter fear is plastered across his face as he struggles to keep his head above the water. Realizing that he has no match for whatever was in the water, he takes his last breath of air as he gets pulled into Davy Jones' locker_ _—_ _death welcoming him and sucking the last bit of life force out of him._

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

This time the body is found on the outskirts of town, in a very well-established private home that is right outside the military zone. It’s a long drive, but Jihoon has Mingyu to be the driver, so that’s not a problem for him at all.

Driving doesn’t bother Mingyu, so he doesn’t mind that at all. What he does mind though, is that the victim for this case is butt-naked and no one thought of warning them. Especially since this is _—_ or I guess was _—_ Jihoon’s ex-friend from back when he served in the military.

At the scene, besides the extreme exposure of skin, there’s not really much to note down. Lieutenant Yang lies lifeless in his fancy humongous filled bathtub. No one else lives with him and again, there are no signs of house invasion. Chan suspects that the victim probably fell into deep sleep while bathing and drowned himself.

Jihoon, of course, thinks otherwise. He thinks that there was foul play, but since “that guy was an asshole” he just decides to keep his mouth shut when he notices that the bathwater looks a little pinkish.

For Mingyu too, all he notes down is that he finds the soldier’s chest dragon tattoos to be cool and plans on getting something like that one day.

Jihoon’s team is at a complete loss at their investigation flops as well. The cause of death is none other than drowning, and the suspects all hated him for being a bully, but they all have a confirmed alibi. These cases are repeating like a cycle of bad luck, and Jihoon wonders why these cases all relate to him in some way and why the fuck he can’t solve any.

Being the meticulous guy that he is, Mingyu somehow convinces Jihoon to take another good look at the lieutenant’s corpse. They visit Jeonghan at the morgue and he pulls the slowly decaying body out. While absentmindedly and secretly tracing over the tattoos with his fingers, Mingyu finds something weird that he did not expect at all. Two holes on the man’s tattooed breast.

Mingyu notifies Jihoon and Jeonghan about it immediately, and the detective questions why Mingyu was touching that area while the perfectionist Jeonghan agonizes over not being able to catch that in the first place. The two holes appear to have been covered by some type of powder, with the tattoo adding another layer of invisibility.

This doesn’t change Jihoon’s perspective at all, but Mingyu is now convinced that the perpetrator they’re trying to catch is a vampire.

“That's real cute,” Jihoon says, sipping his daily coffee.

“What is?” 

“Your little hunch. Next thing you know, you’re going to blame the next body on Santa Claus.”

Mingyu rolls his eyes, faking laughter, “Oh please, Santa Claus? Appearing in the summer?”

“It’s like that for some countries in the world,” Jihoon states, and Mingyu is unable to refute.

He’s only able to convince him to start researching on vampires when Jeonghan updates the autopsy reports and he sees that the victim lost an unusual amount of blood before dying. As well, although this was completely preposterous, it does help explain the extreme lack of physical evidence and Jihoon is running out of logical explanations. 

They double-check the other bodies for bite marks, but they find nothing. Mingyu thinks that it’s either that the vampire is trying to hide their identity or that these murders aren’t linked together.

Since they have nothing else to go off, the whole office proceeds to do nonstop research on vampires. Over time, Jihoon gets more increasingly stressed as he’s wasting time by studying something that doesn’t even exist. It shows so clearly on his face that he’s exhausted, drained, and feeling close to hopeless. Even Seokmin has started ordering random stuff for the office to cope with his stress. At least the KPS guy, Soonyoung, gets to benefit from that.

The atmosphere dampens even more when a fight breaks out between two of the most unexpected people.

Seokmin just gets back from the convenient store with a black plastic bag and starts setting out drinks he bought onto Mingyu’s little table. “Everyone, take your pick!”

Mingyu snarls, clearly not having the best day, “Can you please take those off? My ‘desk’ is already small enough.”

“Sorry, I just wanted to do something else for everyone,” Seokmin says, sneering at Mingyu’s tone.

“Well, nobody asked you to,” Mingyu snaps back.

That was enough for Seokmin. He finally explodes for once and yells out in fury, surprising everyone in the office. Throwing down the empty black plastic bag on the ground, he raises his voice for the first time.

“Well, nobody asked for you to join our department!! Ever since you came here, you’ve been making Detective Lee stress out by wasting his time!!” Gritting his teeth, he goes up all in Mingyu’s face with the most serious expression Jihoon has ever seen from Seokmin. “There’s a murderer on the loose, and what? You make Jihoon learn about supernatural fantasy? When he could be investigating suspects, you make him read books?” Seokmin scoffs, “Based on a hunch?”

Everything Seokmin said was true, and a face of guilt quickly fell over Mingyu’s face for a second. He wasn’t too sure himself about his hunch, but his stubbornness made him cling onto the idea that there was something more to this case than a normal psychotic killer. Having nothing to defend himself, Mingyu puts a straight face to hold onto the little pride he has left and points to the bag on the floor. “Pick it up. Somebody might slip on that.” With that, he walks out of the office without another word.

Seokmin is left standing there speechless, with tears brimming in his eyes from getting upset. He hates getting mad at others, but somebody had to say something. Although he’s still upset, he bends down and picks up the bag himself. That darn Mingyu is right, someone can slip. Cursing himself for being soft-hearted, he lets out a tiny huff and walks off in the opposite direction towards the staff breakroom.

Feeling like this is his fault, Mingyu tries his best to cheer everyone up for the next following days. He starts giving Chan more encouragements and he even makes amends with Seokmin by buying him his favorite drink. For Jihoon, he decides to be a little mischievous.

“I’m gonna take a break and go to the restroom,” Mingyu announces out loud to Jihoon one day.

“Mhm,” Jihoon mumbles without looking up from his computer as Mingyu leaves. 

When Mingyu returns a few minutes later, he announces that he’s back repeatedly until Jihoon looks up to shoot a glare at him. When he does, he notices a strip of toilet paper sticking out of Mingyu’s trousers. This manages to make Jihoon chuckle softly to himself and it actually makes Mingyu happy that his little plan worked. Even if it means he has to embarrass himself, it feels good to see Jihoon smile.

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

Mingyu decides to continue to not break their streak of not bickering and suggests for Jihoon to come over to his place to watch “vampire documentaries” with him. 

They start off with the _Twlight_ series, and Jihoon absolutely doesn’t want to watch a movie while sober. So he ends up drinking almost half a pack of canned beer. 

After a while, an intense makeout scene appears on the screen and the next few moments happen in slow motion in Jihoon’s mind. Suddenly he becomes a lot more aware of Mingyu’s proximity. The way that their thighs and elbows are slightly touching from sitting a little closely on this small couch makes Jihoon feel a tingly inside. 

He turns to Mingyu to observe his reaction to the scene, but his eyes suddenly fall on his lips. They are slightly open as he’s being engrossed in what’s going on in the movie, and Jihoon wonders what it would feel like to press his lips against his. 

Ever since he joined the academy at 14-years-old, his career was all he ever cared about. It got worse when his father passed as he just mainly focused on helping support his mother financially and took on part-time jobs aside from his training.

How long has it been since he even had a crush on someone? Since he even had a flutter or silver of genuine happiness? 

As Jihoon mindlessly continues to stare, he doesn’t notice Mingyu turning his head towards him. He doesn’t move and just meets his eyes as he does so. Jihoon isn’t sure if it’s the alcohol, but he wonders if Mingyu’s eyes always sparkled the way it does now. If they were always a pair of beautiful brown orbs that show him all the stars of the universe.

Mingyu is the first to move as he starts leaning closer and he stops once he’s just inches away from Jihoon’s face. Jihoon wonders if Mingyu was hesitant because he’s scared. Too scared to dive into his seas to the deepest layer of the ocean where it’s the the most dense and most cold. He watches as Mingyu’s eyes dart side to side, searching for any sign of resistance or disgust. However, Jihoon just simply blinks at Mingyu with half-opened eyes and a blank expression across his face. 

The sounds from the movie suddenly drown out as Mingyu goes in and presses his soft lips against his. He starts off slow by giving him small pecks and once he realizes that Jihoon isn’t fighting it, he goes deeper as he snaking his hand behind Jihoon’s neck to pull him closer. 

Jihoon starts reciprocating the kisses following Mingyu’s lead, enjoying the contrast of taste from his bitter tart alcohol to something a little more savory. Mingyu’s lips are smooth, even more so from them being a little buttered up from the popcorn, and he has never tasted anything like it before.

As if something takes over, their kisses grow hungrier and their tongues meet for the first time as they do the tango. Mingyu’s no longer afraid of anything and he allows himself to fall back onto the couch as Jihoon starts to get up and kiss him harder with more passion. With the harmony of their soft moans and the symphonies of the strings of their hearts, for the first time, Jihoon allows Mingyu to take a journey to the center of his Earth.

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

Jihoon wakes up first the next morning and he contemplates leaving before Mingyu wakes, but he decides against it. Instead, he hobbles out onto the balcony to get some fresh air.

Sighing, Jihoon leans over the railing, resting his elbows on top. He looks out at the skyline before him, staying still as he lets his thoughts go with the breeze.

_The skies look so clear today. Everything just seems so...calm and nice?_

The average person would greatly appreciate the nice weather, but Jihoon? Something about the world looking too nice just makes him sad. It makes him reminisce back then when things were easier. When life was a little more simpler and when he didn’t have to carry anyone’s burdens except for his own. He wonders again what his life would be like if he never found out the truth.

“Oh, there you are.” 

Jihoon turns his head slightly as Mingyu steps out onto the deck and closes the sliding door behind him. As he approaches him, he notices that Mingyu had changed into a grey hoodie that was big enough to make him look a little small. 

“I was looking for you.” Mingyu says in a gentle tone that is different from how he usually spoke towards Jihoon. “Breakfast is ready inside if you want it.”

“How did you know that I was still here?”

“Well, even though you’re known for being a dick...I know that you’re not someone who would run off like that after a-.” Mingyu stops himself, feeling his own ears heating up, before continuing. “I mean you wouldn’t run off in this situation…”

Jihoon turns his head to face away from him. “But what if I did? What if I did run like a coward?” He whispers underneath his breath.

“Hey...What’s wrong?” Mingyu reaches out to place a hand on Jihoon’s shoulder, but he hesitates. The lines between them were blurry and he didn't want to cross any.

“Today is the death anniversary of my late father,” he responds bluntly, but Mingyu catches a hint of pain and sadness behind it.

“I’m sorry…”

Jihoon shakes his head. “When I say death anniversary, I’m not even talking about the actual day he passed. I’m talking about the day all the respect I had for him died.”

Mingyu goes next to him and leans against the railing while clasping his two hands together.

His cries get muffled out as he sobs into Mingyu’s shirt while clutching onto the sides of it. Jihoon doesn’t know why he’s crying. He didn’t even know he still had tears to spare ever since the day his father passed and when he found the notes.

Mingyu’s face softens as he wraps his arms around a trembling Jihoon. The soft rhythmic reassuring pats he gives help him calm down and gather his emotions.

As Jihoon gathers himself, he tells Mingyu everything. About how his father was a prosecutor with a perfect record and ended up forging evidence to keep that record.

“An innocent man was put to death because of that...He was just a delivery man who delivered a package to that apartment five minutes before the actual murderer did the deed. My father died in his sleep due to a heartattack and I was devastated until I found crumpled notes in his trash bin admitting that he made up evidence to get a conviction. When that happened, I was even more devastated. The man I looked up to for so many years...I felt so ashamed.”

Jihoon goes on and tells Mingyu how only he knows the truth and how he’s too much of a coward to expose his own late father.

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

_The Fourth Night_

_“Thank you, have a good night!!” She chirps as she hands over the customer’s drink. She waits until the customer leaves the cafe before turning off her excellent customer-service facade, immediately dropping her smile and rolling her eyes._

_She groans as she glances at the clock hanging behind her on the wall. Night shifts were the absolute worst. Tonight is ten times worse because the coworker that was supposed to help her closed bailed for the night to go raving. She wishes she could freely just throw away money like that on useless things instead of having to pay for bills and college tuition._

_At least the cafe was a lot less busy now that rush hour had ended and it had gone past midnight. The customer that just left was the last one for quite a while. Their shop isn’t that popular anyways and it’s a Thursday night, so the emptiness of the place isn’t too much of a surprise._

_Having time to kill, she goes on her phone to study for her exam tomorrow. She tries her best to focus, but she notices that the streetlight outside started flickering. Shaking her head, she tries to ignore it and tells herself that it’s probably just a technical issue and that it’s something that happens all the time._

_The next distraction came when the wind outside started howling, and the doors somehow blew open and closed. She’s not the type to get scared easily, but she has to admit that she’s starting to get chills down her spine. The ambiance suddenly shifted from solitude to something more eerie._

_She decides to distract herself by getting back to work and checking the ingredients on the counter to make sure she has enough creamer and coffee beans. There seems to be a little bit enough of everything to make a few drinks, so she decides to get out from her counter and start wiping down tables. While rubbing off the coffee stains from tables, she notices that the floor seems to be a bit dirty with a few plastic straw wrappers and napkins littered around. She lets out a loud yawn in boredom and exhaustion as she tosses the towel on the counter and heads towards the back where the storage room was._

_She heads inside and the heavy door closes behind her. Grabbing the broom, she glances at the boxes they had stocked and decides to do a quick scan of inventory — might as well while she’s in there. After making a mental note of a few ingredients that need to be ordered, she goes back out to front to do some cleaning._

_She doesn’t even make it past the counter before the weird things start happening. The coffee machines start making a loud whirring sound before they start dripping liquid. She only begins to panic when the dripping turns into spilling as endless amounts of liquid just start pouring out of the machines._

_Throwing her broom aside, she frantically starts pressing buttons to stop the machine. When that doesn’t work, she unplugs all the machines but they just keep on going. The floor is now flooded with a dark murky liquid that smells similar to coffee. She almost slips as she runs from machine to machine, using containers to try to catch all the liquid._

_In the midst of the chaos, she doesn’t notice the little bell attached to the door ring as someone glides in. It’s only when she swings her head around when she meets eyes with the most soulless looking pair of eyes she has ever seen. A sly smile grows on their face and the next thing she knows, she feels her entire body burn. As she falls to her knees, the last sense of feeling the girl feels is the scorching sensation of fire against her skin._

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

The next day, Jihoon’s team head straight towards the morgue to examine the body. Chan already told them that there was nothing peculiar about the scene. Even the security cam footage just showed the girl walking into the closet and never coming back out.

Mingyu gags when he sees the body, but it doesn’t phase Jihoon as he has seen a lot of corpses of clan labs gone wrong. He’s actually more sad that his favorite coffee place is closed temporarily since a crime took place at the cafe.

The victim’s body is covered in blisters, severely burnt skin, and the smell of coffee, but no “bite marks” are found from what’s left of her. As everyone is feeling hopeless, being back to square one again, Chan calls Jihoon on a Saturday afternoon and invites him to join him in a stakeout. 

Thrilled to have a case not involving murder, Jihoon heads over right away _—_ wanting to feel the adrenaline rush again. He arrives to only find out that it’s actually a barbecue party or a “steak out” that Seokmin arranged. He ends up having a good time, just simply eating and not thinking for once. Soon, night arrives again.

As they finish up chowing down on the meat, Mingyu brings out the pot of ramen he has been cooking up and Seokmin gets up from his seat.

“Hey sworry guys, but I gwatta go,” he says with his mouth full of the last pieces of meat he stuffed in. He chews and swallows before continuing, “My mom wants me home early today because it’s my dad’s birthday. Have fun everyone though! Bye~!!”

Jihoon gives him a quick nod before returning to his ribs, while the rest properly send Seokmin away with a wave.

When he’s gone, Chan tilts his head in confusion. “That’s weird…”

Mingyu looks up as he’s in the midst of serving the ramen. “What is?” 

“I swore his dad’s birthday was a few months ago...Maybe I remembered it wrong?”

“What do you think, Detective? Was Seokmin lying?” Mingyu asks in a lighthearted manner as he sets a full bowl of ramen in front of Jihoon.

Jihoon tosses the rib that he just finished deboning to the side and wipes his mouth with a napkin. “I didn’t look at him, so I don’t know. It doesn’t matter though. He probably was just trying to find an excuse to attend to some other business.” Picking up his chopsticks, he picks up some ramen and blows on it before slurping them down.

Chan’s eyes light up as a mischievous grin flies across his face. “Oooh~. Perhaps going on a date with a certain doctor? Love is truly in the air in the Lee Department!”

Jihoon chokes mid-eating and Mingyu drops the bowl of ramen he was about to give Chan. 

Seeing his precious bowl of ramen flopped over, Chan’s shoulders slump as his ecstatic expressions turn into a dejected one. “Great. Not only am I the only single one with no love, but now I also don’t have ramen.”

“How about the KPS delivery guy?” Mingyu asks as he carefully picks up the bowl from the table and tries to scoop up the fallen noodles. 

Meanwhile, Jihoon is slowly inching away from the soupy mess that was spreading across the table.

Chan grabs some napkins and starts helping Mingyu clean. “What about him?”

“I don’t know, he seems to smile widely at you whenever he comes by. It’s like he always tries to linger a little longer after he drops off the package.”

Chan chuckles heartily. “That’s nonsense. He smiles at everyone. Literally, a smile never leaves that guy’s face.” Although he denies it, you can easily tell that he’s enjoying the attention.

Mingyu wiggles his eyebrows upon seeing the smile that Chan is trying so hard to hide. “I guess we will have to order for another delivery and invite him to hang out with us in order to find out.”

“That’s it!!” Jihoon suddenly shouts, shooting up from his seat while slamming the table with two fists. 

Chan and Mingyu stare at him in surprise before exchanging questionable glances and returning their gaze back to him. 

“Uhh, what’s it, Detective?” Chan asks.

“The hole,” Jihoon answers, nodding to himself.

“The hole??”

“These murders...there was something that didn’t make sense. This killer...this monster...It’s no, vampire. I can’t believe I didn’t realize this sooner.”

Mingyu slides onto the bench and sits across from Jihoon. “What made you lead up to that conclusion?” 

“I just remembered from the films that vampires aren’t allowed to enter someone else’s house without getting permission. If Composer Yoo’s death wasn’t caused by his maid, then the killer can’t be a vampire because it couldn’t have entered his house! Same for Lieutenant Yang. He fell asleep in his bathtub and nobody was in his vicinity beforehand.”

Chan tilts his head to the side with a confused expression on his face. “Wait, I thought you said that the vampire thing was bogus and you just went along with whatever Detective Gyu wanted since we had no direction.”

“Oh, yeah I did. I just wanted to find evidence to prove that he was wrong,” Jihoon jokes lightheartedly, getting a playful jab from Mingyu. “I still think that this killer might just be something supernatural though. His idiotic hunch has broadened our spectrum.”

Chan narrows his eyes suspiciously as he looks at both of the detectives. “You’ve both been getting along quite well lately, haven’t you?”

“No!!” They both shout unanimously, glancing at each other as they do so.

Scooting closer to Jihoon, Chan takes a closer look at Jihoon’s clothes. “Wait...I know this shirt, isn’t this Detective Gyu’s tacky button-up dress shirt?!” 

The “steak out” ends with a smirking young officer and two blubbering detectives in denial.

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

The crew is taken by surprise the next day when they receive a mysterious package that Seokmin does not remember ordering at all.

“Hope you guys have a wonderful night,” Soonyoung says as he gently places down the package on the table and steals a glance at Chan.

Chan clears his throat before replying in a slightly deeper tone than usual, “Ahem, thank you. You too. It’s Soonyoung, right?”

Soonyoung’s cheekbones rise as a goofy yet shy smile spreads across his face upon his hearing name. “Oh! Um, yes it is! Well…” He stands still and looks like he wants to say something or stay longer. “Well, goodbye then! See you guys next time!”

As he leaves, Seokmin gives Chan a nudge and wiggles his eyebrows with a knowingly smile as Jihoon goes to investigate the box.

“There’s no return address,” Jihoon observes, taking out his pocket knife and cutting it open. 

Inside, they find a ring, the four decapitated fingers, a small container of powder, and a coffee creamer. On the very bottom of the box, “Are you having fun yet?” is written.

Jihoon turns to look at the tackboard in his room where he has notes from all four cases pinned up. They all have two things in common. One, they were all seemingly almost impossible. And two, they were all related to him. He looks back at the box and thinks hard. 

“Delivery…” Jihoon murmurs to himself as it’s still fresh in his mind. “That’s it!” 

He gets reminded of his late father’s last case and he immediately has Chan take them back to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency for the case file.

“Ahh, this is why you’re on the team,” Jihoon says, giving Chan a firm pat on the shoulder after the officer manages to sneak them all into the archive room.

Chan furrows his eyebrows as he puts his hands on his hips. “What’s that supposed to mean? That I’m on the team so you guys can use me?”

Jihoon turns around, giving him the most convincing smile he can put on. “Of course not. You’re on the team because you’re useful.”

It takes five long seconds before Chan’s touched smiling face suddenly switches to one with realization. “Hey! Wait a second-”

On the other hand, Seokmin, who has been practically bouncing off the walls for being able to explore the building of his dream agency, doesn’t seem so excited anymore after seeing how dusty the files were.

“What’s wrong, Seokmin? It’s not what you hoped and dreamed for?” Jihoon asks, noticing the disappointed look on his face.

“I thought that they’d be more organized with their filing than this,” he says, looking disgusted. Seokmin sneezes ten times before locating the file and handing it to Jihoon who is hesitant about taking it.

Jihoon makes Mingyu open it up instead, and Jihoon flips through the files before finding what he was looking for. The lead forensic examiner’s contact information.

After exchanging texts with him for about a week, Jihoon learns that apparently there was a peculiar string of murders that started occurring in a small village after the innocent accused man was put to death. Apparently, Prosecutor Lee was trying to investigate them and wrote down a name of a shaman that lived there. He ended up dying before he could get anywhere else with those cases.

Jihoon takes Mingyu with him to that village and they hike up to the mountains where the shaman stayed. When they approach the building, she beckons them in as if she was already expecting them. 

They sit down in front of her, crisscrossed, and she remains unmoving with her eyes closed. After taking a deep breath, she tells them the tale of the monster they’re searching for.

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

_Years ago, there was a young boy whose father was unjustly taken away from him and his mother. His father’s voice was left unheard, despite his endless cries for someone to believe him. However, the one that held power twisted the story and nobody stood by him. Thousands of eyes looked at him with judging looks and he was sentenced to death. However, like many who are put on death row, he was left to die in prison for something he didn’t do._

_The boy’s mother was left in shambles after that, not knowing how to cope with the loss and the weight of shame they received from the people of their little village. One day she left the house in silence with the most somber look on her face, not bothering to answer her son who had asked her where she was going. Worried for what she might be up to, he secretly followed after her._

_She had gone to the village’s shaman that lived up the hill. Getting on her knees, she begged the shaman for help as tears streamed down her face._

_“Please...please help me take this pain away. Let me speak with my ancestors so they can tell me what to do…”_

_The shaman simply closed her eyes and began by striking a drum and chanting. “Oh spirits, please help this poor woman that has lost her husband to the hands of the false witnesses. Help her seek what she wishes by coming forth and protect the reputation of your bloodline.”_

_When she opened her eyes, the shaman had gone and the spirits of the ancestors had arrived. “Dear one, do not weep for we are here. Here to take the pain away.”_

_The woman sniffled as she wiped away her tears. “How will you do that?”_

_The person before her smiled, almost menacingly. “Why, by fulfilling what you wish of course._ **_Revenge._ ** _”_

_“R-revenge?”_

_“That is what you desire deep down, is it not?” The shaman tilted her head to the side. “There is anger boiling inside you behind all the fear and brokenness.”_

_The woman looked down at her hands, feeling guilty as she realized that it was true. “Yes.” She admitted. “Nobody listened, nobody cared. It was unfair and unjust.”_

_“And for that, they all deserve to rust,” the shaman added, eyes glowing in excitement as the woman seemed to be agreeing with them. “We know some friends down here under that are able to help. They can lend you their power to help make things right.” She then clasped her hands together, grinning from ear to ear, before eyeing the door where the boy was hiding behind. “However, you must make a deal,” she said, making sure it was loud enough for him to hear._

_The woman nodded in desperation. “Anything, I’ll do anything.”_

_As the spirits expected, the boy came bursting through the door shouting, “Don’t mom! Don’t do it! We don’t need to make a contract with the devil in order to be happy again.” He took his mother’s hands in his and looked her in the eyes beggingly. “Even if it’s just you and me, we can...we can make things work. Dad would’ve wanted that for us.”_

_However, one look into his mother’s sullen eyes told him that she had lost all hope for that and was not able to be convinced anymore. His shoulders slumped in defeat and he slowly let go of her hands, knowing what he had to do to protect his mother._

_“I’ll do it,” he said as he turned to face the possessed shaman that was watching them with an amused expression. “I’ll do it instead.”_

_“Stepping in for your dear mother. A descendant of ours indeed you are. Very well then. Give me your hands.”_

_The boy gulped as he did what he was told, trembling as he stretched out his arms._

_The shaman wrapped her hands around his wrists firmly, as she closed her eyes once more as she channeled the demons with the help of the spirits. In a deep, almost demonic voice, she chants, “Young child, do not fret for you no longer have to fear. May the powers of the Alps free you from weakness and turn you instead into everybody’s worst_ **_nightmare_ ** _.”_

_With those final words, the shaman’s eyes rolled back until only the whites of her eyes were seen as her body started to shake violently. Frightened, the boy attempted to pull away but it was too late to back out now. Her fingers that had gone alarmingly cold, tightened into an iron grip around his wrists. When her shaking came to a sudden stop, her mouth opened and a single black butterfly came flying out from it._

_The boy felt his own mouth be forced open and could only watch in terror as the black butterfly flew into his mouth. He choked as it went down his throat and when he closed his mouth, the ritual was done._

_From that night on, he realized what had happened to him and had no choice but to accept it. The demons would whisper, and he would listen. He let them guide him into dark places where minds should not go. The boy was still human, but the Alps used him like a pawn._

_They made him practice by haunting the dreams of thieves of his little village. They would lead him to where they hid and he would wait until they got drunk before getting on top of them and delving into their minds as they slept._

_Since then, like a parasite, he fed off the fear of his victims. Their screams, their pain, their tears, their blood rejuvenated him as even a whiff of fear filled him with an insane amount of adrenaline. And once he had his first taste of it, there was no going back. The thrill was too addicting. The adrenaline made sure that the scared young boy was locked away._

_The Alps were right. Devouring the fear of others made him fearless. He no longer had to worry about feeling weak and hopeless ever again. And so, even after doing the deed that his powers were first given for, he kept feeding by dwelling in the shadows of people’s minds_ _—_ _ready to pounce and reel them in. Every time he wakes in the depths of the night, he takes another life._

_Child, it’s time to wake up._

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

The shaman sighs after recalling and relaying all that had happened to the two detectives. 

When she finishes, Mingyu turns to look over at Jihoon with his eyes enlarged and his mouth hanging open.

Jihoon only looks perplexed, his forehead wrinkling as he tries to take everything in and process it. “There has to be some way we could stop him. He can’t just go murdering people like this.”

The shaman sighs again, looking down at the floor with regret. “I should’ve known that the boy’s ancestors were evil. This wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t summon them.”

Jihoon slams his fist on the table, causing the plates and candles to shake. “I know you know how to stop him. Tell us _now_.” He says, tone growing serious. 

The shaman looks back up at him and sees the determined look on his face. “You have a lot of vigor, don’t you? Just like your father.”

His mouth goes dry at the mention of his father. “I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

“You’re right where he wanted you to be. He wanted you to come find me. To fix the past and mend the broken.”

“I am _nothing_ like him.” Jihoon shoots up and looks at the shaman disdainfully. “I’m only doing this because people are dying. There’s a serial killer on the loose and it’s my job to stop him. That is all.” Having enough, he turns around and leaves.

Mingyu smiles at the shaman apologetically as he scrambles up too. “I’ll uh...speak with my partner for a moment. We’ll be right back.”

He follows after Jihoon and finds him standing by the edge of the hill, facing towards the village. “Hey…” Mingyu says as he walks up next to him and finds him staring at the pen in his hand with mournful eyes. On his other hand, he’s holding the case file.

Mingyu recognizes the pen immediately. It’s hard not to when it has such a unique looking top and is always seen poking out of the breast pocket of his trenchcoat. 

“You still have that pen? That thing doesn’t even work.”

Jihoon shoots Mingyu a glare. “You’ve used my pen?!”

Mingyu’s eyes shift in nervousness as he gulps. “Y-yeah. I once had to jot down an address that I got from over the phone and saw it on your desk…”

“This pen is an invisible ink pen. My father used to use these with me when he made up fake cases for me to solve. He would always write hidden messages on papers for me to find and…”

Feeling sentimental, he clicks on the UV flashlight and absentmindedly shines it around. Revealing in invisible ink, a hidden message appears on the folder.

Both their eyes widen in surprise, and Mingyu respectfully takes his leave so that Jihoon can read it privately.

_“You always had a knack for solving puzzles as a child, so I’m assuming you followed through with your dream of becoming a detective,”_ it begins.

No way...Was this a letter for him?

_“I hid this letter in here knowing that one day you’ll open this file and make things right again. I made a selfish decision that destroyed a family, and I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. Please help do what your father was too afraid to do and bring out the truth. I can’t even dare to ask the boy's family for forgiveness, but I beg of you to help them in my steed. Your old man failed you, but I know that you’ll become an even better man than I could ever hope to be. I’m sorry, Jihoon-ah. Go ahead and curse me all you want. I don’t deserve your forgiveness either, but I hope that you know that this imperfect father loves you very much._

_Love,_ _Dad. ”_

Jihoon grips the file as endless teardrops start to fall from his eyes. He has to solve this. He has to make things right again.

With a newfound determination, he marches back in and joins Mingyu who was asking the shaman a few questions.

“Ah, you’ve returned,” she says when she notices him. “Are you ready to find out how you can stop this creature?”

Jihoon silently nods, and the shaman tells them that they will need two mystical objects.

“The night terrors and death counts got so bad back then that a woman from the Objiwe tribe flew over to reside in our village. The monster would wait for people to sleep and go into their rooms. Instead of directly touching them, they go inside their dreams to kill them either with a weapon or from psychological torture. What happens to them in the dream reflects what happens to them in real life.” The shaman shuts her eyes and Jihoon manages to catch her shiver subtly as she remembers what happened back then. “The Objiwe woman was able to protect the villagers with her woven dreamcatchers that shielded off the vengeful demon. Luckily, she knew you two were coming so she handed me one to pass along to you.”

She brings it out from behind her and places it down on the table. “Use this to dispel the demon once and for all. It’ll only work once the host is willing to give it up.”

As Mingyu jots it down on his notepad, Jihoon nods as he makes his own mental note of it.

“Alright. So what’s the next one?”

“The next one is an amulet gifted by a powerful mythical creature. Even though the demon was driven away from the village, I knew that it was still out there tormenting innocent people. So I did rituals for days, asking for the spirits to provide a way to stop the demon. One from abroad had mercy on our souls and helped me summon this creature named Baku, who has the trunk of an elephant, the feet of a tiger, the eyes of a rhinoceros, and a tail of an ox.”

“Sounds like a powerful creature,” Mingyu says, getting shivers from just imagining what it might look like. “So, this amulet contains powers?” Mingyu asks.

“Yes,” she replies, removing a necklace she was wearing around her neck and placing it next to the dreamcatcher. “This amulet is said to allow whoever touches it to be able to jump into the dreams of others. I am certain that it will be immensely useful to help you identify and catch the demon in the act. Mark him somehow and search for that same mark during the day.”

Jihoon raises an eyebrow. “Why haven’t you tried getting it and stopping the demon you brought into the world yourself?” 

The shaman grins at Jihoon’s quick sense. “My time in this world isn’t up yet, so I didn’t want to risk it. Besides, I had a feeling that the spirits would bring upon two brave souls to retrieve it one day.”

Outraged, Mingyu gets up quickly causing the table to shake. “You knew all these years and didn’t try to do anything about it?! Do you know how many people died because of this demon?!”

The shaman calmly looks over to Jihoon who has his eyes downcasted. “I was just doing my job back then. It was someone else who brought upon the demon. Yet, that person still brought you two here even after death. If you didn’t resent him so much, perhaps you would’ve found me sooner.”

Jihoon says nothing and takes both items as he gets up. “Thank you, we will take our leave now.”

As they both begin to leave, the shaman runs after them and pulls Jihoon back. “He’s among you,” she whispers. “Be wary of whom you give your trust to.”

He shakes her off with an annoyed expression on his face, and they leave her as she wishes them to have the spirits on their side.

On his way back, her words echo in his mind. Even if he doesn’t want to believe it, it makes a lot more sense on why they weren’t able to find any conclusive evidence. Someone from the inside or nearby has been sabotaging their case or leading them in the wrong direction.

It’s someone close...Someone who has access to the information and evidence they’ve collected. Someone who could easily take something without anyone noticing. Jihoon can only think of four of his closest colleagues, but which one is it? Whom and why? Even the sheer thought that one of them is a horrifying demonic monster underneath sends shivers down his spine.

_Once again, it’s betrayal._

But what Jihoon does know for a fact is that, in order to catch this blood-seeking killer, he will need to re-learn how to put his trust in people.

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

When they get back, they start doing research about Alps and find out that they are creatures from German folkmore. They usually wear a hat and can shapeshift with it. As well, they are able to travel through keyholes and do occasionally suck the blood from their victim’s chest.

For safety precautions, he decides to not tell Seokmin or Chan about the plan or the Alps. He will let them know what they learned from the shaman after the plan is carried out. Since Mingyu already knows everything, Jihoon has him join the plan. With permission from the forensic scientist, they plan on using him as bait and having someone from the media write an article about him and the old case.

As night falls, Jihoon and Mingyu hide in the guest room as they each hold onto the amulet and wait for the scientist to fall asleep. Once he does, they get teleported into his dream realm and they prepare for the Alp’s arrival. 

“Remind me why again we’re wearing these paper bags with holes over our heads?” Mingyu asks.

“Just in case…” Jihoon says, trailing off. “We never know if the Alp turns out to be someone we know.”

“We look like we’re the intruders…” Mingyu mumbles, thinking about that one scene in _The Incredibles_ of the heroes getting mistaken as thieves. 

Sure enough, he ends up getting punched on the nose when they bump into the forensic scientist. 

“It’s me! It’s me!” Mingyu shouts, raising his arms to defend his face. 

“Oh, sorry! I thought you were the monster.”

Jihoon chuckles, “Yeah, me too. Now let’s go hide so we can jump the son of a bitch when he arrives.”

They decide to hide behind this huge machine. Jihoon finds it interesting that the scientist would dream such boring dreams about his old lab, and figures that he will probably do the same too when he retires. 

A few minutes pass, and it’s time to spring into action. The scientist, who has been pretending to be preoccupied and trying hard to not to appear scared, immediately bolts away once he hears the door slam open. The Alp is disguised in its natural form, smart enough to not take the appearance of its human host. Like the internet says, it wears a hat and its appearance is somewhere between a gargoyle and a demon.

It appears to be confused when it sees Jihoon and Mingyu, but it charges at the bag-headed strangers anyway. They scuffle for a bit, with Mingyu getting a hold of the Alp at one point but immediately losing him once he gets elbowed in the face. While Mingyu is on the ground, Jihoon uses his swift reflexes and does a swiping kick, knocking the Alp off its feet. As he takes out his pocket knife to mark him, the Alp dives under his legs and knocks him over too. 

While the Alp thinks it’s at an advantage, Jihoon swings his knife while on the ground as it’s trying to claw at him and manages to leave a cut on one of its hands. 

“I got it! Let’s go, let’s go!” He shouts at Mingyu.

Using all his might, Jihoon wakes himself up and gets back to the real world before the Alp could attack him again. He swings his head around and finds Mingyu still in deep sleep, clutching onto the amulet. If he doesn’t leave now, his life can be in danger.

Jihoon yells out “Detective Kim” over and over and tries shaking him, but he doesn’t wake up. Mingyu’s eyes begin to dart frantically under his eyelids and let out a yelp of pain.

“Detective Kim!! Kim Mingyu, get out of there right now!! Please!!” Jihoon starts to get desperate and slaps Mingyu in the face hard, knocking him off the bed. 

“Whoa whoa! What happened?” Mingyu asks, dazed from just waking up. 

Once he sees that Mingyu is awake and safe, Jihoon falls down and starts crying from the outburst of emotions. He doesn’t know why he’s crying, but he’s just glad that he didn’t lose another person in his life.

“You big baboon…” He cries, punching Mingyu’s chest with balled-up fists. “You could’ve died. Why didn’t you wake up according to the plan?”

Mingyu blinks blankly, unsure of what to say to see Jihoon react this way. He thought that Jihoon wanted to pretend that that one night didn’t happen. Instead of speaking, he just lets Jihoon continue to hit him until he stops and embraces him tightly--holding him as he trembles in his arms. When Jihoon doesn’t notice, he presses a soft kiss on the top of his head to help soothe him.

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

The next day, Jihoon calls everyone over to the office to tell them about everything starting from what the shaman told them to the end of their successful plan last night. 

Chan immediately starts looking up new potential suspects, Seokmin starts excitedly changing up his reports on the cases on what probably really happened, and Jeonghan comes over to help take a look at the previous case’s autopsy reports along with confirming if the fingers they received in the mail were indeed Composer Yoo’s.

“Why the dull look on your face?” Mingyu asks, sitting on the edge of Jihoon’s desk.

Jihoon contemplates on whether he should say anything about having suspicions about the team and just sits there. He watches as Chan looks over to Seokmin's computer and chastises him for naming the report “mafia of your dreams.”

“Hey, stop romanticizing the murderer!” 

Seokmin covers his screen shouting back, “I’m not!! This is just a draft anyways, I’m not going to use this as the actual title.”

Mingyu gives Jihoon an encouraging rub on his shoulder, bringing his attention back to him. “Hey, you can tell me. What’s on your mind? Things are looking up for us, right?”

“More like the opposite actually…” Jihoon says glumly, “The shaman told me that day that...that the monster is among us.”

“Among us??” Mingyu turns to look at the others. “That can’t be...I can’t even imagine for it to be any one of us.” 

“Kim Mingyu,” Jihoon begins, and Mingyu swears his heart stops beating for a moment upon Jihoon calling him by his full name. “Right now, things aren’t looking the best for you.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“I mean that…” Jihoon rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. “It would make the most sense if the infiltrator was you. You’re the one who joined us last.” He gestures to the rest, “I’ve been with these guys for at least a year or two and nothing has ever happened till now. I really hate to say this, but the murders didn’t start until you joined us…”

Mingyu gets up infuriated, “I was with you last night! We both saw the Alp with our own eyes!! How could it be me?” 

Jihoon looks down at the floor, not wanting for any of this to happen. “But the Alp has the ability to control some parts of the dream. It could have been manipulated to make it look like you were with me the entire time and not the one I was fighting.” 

“Unbelievable,” Mingyu scoffs. “After all this time...I thought you were finally opening up to me, Jihoon.” 

Jihoon looks up when he hears his name instead of Detective Lee, and it hurts hearing it for the first time like this.

“I thought we were doing well...Not only as a team, but-” Mingyu stops himself as just lets it go. “If that’s how you truly feel, then I’ll leave. See if the murders stop or if you even want to, arrest me. You’ll know where to find me.” 

As his eyes drift to Mingyu’s right hand that is perched on the desk, he notices the small scratch.

“What’s that then?”

Mingyu looks to where Jihoon’s eyes are resting and jostles in shock. “When...when did I get this? I swear, I didn’t even though it was there. I don’t remember getting this at all.” When he notices Jihoon avoid his gaze, he stops and realizes that he can’t do much to defend himself right now. “Alright. I’ll leave like I said. Goodbye, Detective Lee.”

With those last words that make Jihoon’s insides sting, he takes his leave without looking back.

Like an idiot, Jihoon doesn’t chase after him and the others come running in. 

“Is it true?” Seokmin asks with a shocked expression on his face. “That there’s an imposter among us? That it could be Mingyu?”

Everyone is suddenly using first-name basis now and it hurts even more. Sighing, Jihoon confesses that it is true. “I’m not sure if it’s him though. But for certain, the monster is among us.”

Chan bites his lips and puts on his thinking cap. “You know, it could also be the KPS delivery guy. Like he comes by our office so often! Also, he delivered that gruesome package to us…”

“Really? You’re accusing the guy that has the hots for you?” Seokmin asks.

“The package could have been sent by someone else,” Jihoon notes. “The delivery guy could have not known about the contents inside.”

“Or maybe...it’s Seokmin hyung??” Chan gasps, backing away from him. 

Seokmin’s jaw drops at the accusation. “What??”

“Maybe your sweet innocent demeanor is just a whole facade! And you do tend to avoid taking night shifts!!”

“Well, that’s because…” Seokmin pauses as a hint of red starts to appear on his ears. “I use that time to...um…wri-”

“Wring out bodies from their souls!!” Chan exclaims, making the wringing motion with his hands to amplify what he meant. As he does so, his hand knocks over an opened bottle of juice and it spills all over Jeonghan.

Jeonghan jumps up, yelping as he stands there drenched in orange juice. 

Chan moves fast and attempts to move away the paperwork from the pool of orange juice. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!!”

Jeonghan flings his hands and nods. “It’s okay, I’ll just go get cleaned up.”

“Maybe it’s you! You just ruined a lot of important paperwork that we need!” Seokmin shouts, out of anger as he helps clean up the mess with paper towels. 

“That was an accident, okay?? I didn’t mean to hit it! Also, I wasn’t the dumbass that didn’t close the bottle.”

Seokmin scoffs, “Sure, Mr. Alp! And I’m guessing that hat over there doesn’t belong to you either?”

“What’s wrong with wearing hats??”

Seokmin cocks his head to the side as he scrubs the table faster. “Well, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because the Alps wear them!”

“I-I just brought mine today because I wanted to look-”

“Wanted to what?”

“Wanted to look nice for...You know, what nevermind! I don’t have to defend myself. I’m a loyal police officer to Detective Lee and our country. I’m going to see if Jeonghan hyung needs help!”

“Our country? Ha!” Seokmin says mockingly, “You’re not a soldier, son! Also, the mafia is usually the one that accuses everyone for no reason!!” He shouts after Chan who leaves to the restrooms.

Jihoon just stands there as he watches the droplets of orange juice fall off the table.

“Detective Lee?” Seokmin says meekly, lowering his voice after noticing his presence. “What do you think?”

“It’s true that Chan is always the first one at the scene...The first-responding officer has the most important role of keeping the crime scene intact, but if they had bad intentions...it’s easy to manipulate the case.”

Seokmin falls silent, not expecting such a serious response. He’s just mostly kidding about accusing Chan, but now he feels bad for implanting this idea into the detective’s head. “Perhaps…”

Chan then comes scurrying back, in a rush as if he’s being chased by something. “Guys, guys,” he says, dropping his voice low in a whisper. “It’s Jeonghan hyung.”

“What??” Seokmin exclaims, getting shushed immediately by the other two. “Why would you say that?” He whispers back.

“The restroom door was open so I stood outside and when he took off his gloves to wash his hands...I saw the slash mark!”

Jihoon leans in close, “Which hand was it?”

“His left? Wait, maybe it was his right? I don’t remember, because I saw it from the reflection of the mirror. He was about to look up and see me watching him, but I ran away before he did.”

Seokmin crosses his arms, “Maybe, but what if you’re lying to us about what you saw to make it seem like it’s him? He’s not that kind of person.”

“Easy, just ask him to show his hands when he comes back out. And I know that you’re just defending him because you like him.”

“What??” Seokmin’s face flushes red as he starts to stammer. “N-not even!”

“You guys go on lunch dates all the time!! And I see the way that you look at him,” Chan says, mimicking Seokmin’s googly eyes. 

A gentle voice interrupts them, “Is everything okay?” Everyone freezes in place as Jeonghan glances at everyone with a relaxed expression on his face and his hands in his pockets. 

Knowing that the other two won’t have the guts to ask, Jihoon steps up. “Dr. Yoon, do you mind showing us your hands before you leave? Both of them, please.”

“Okay, sure. I don’t know why, but…” 

The three of them look closely as Jeonghan takes his hands out and spreads his fingers, giving everyone a good look at them. Unlike what Chan said, there’s no mark anywhere on his hands.

Chan scratches his head, wondering if he saw it wrong and Seokmin shoots him a glare. 

“You have beautiful hands, Jeonghan hyung,” Seokmin says, trying to make things less(?) awkward.

Jeonghan smiles softly at Seokmin as he gives his hair a little ruffle. “Thanks, Seokmin-ah~. Now, if you’re all done, I have to leave to go home and take a shower.”

Jihoon nods, “You’re all good. Thank you for your help today, Dr.Yoon.”

Jeonghan nods back and sweetly waves goodbye to everyone before heading out.

“Hyung,” Chan pleads, dropping honorifics and pulling on Jihoon’s sleeve gently. “It’s not me, you have to believe me. Please…”

Jihoon moves Chan’s hands away from his arm and nods. “I won’t say anything about who I think it is, but whoever the imposter is...I know for a fact that they have been found out and will be making their move soon. They will reveal themselves.” He gives an awkward reassuring pat to Chan and Seokmin’s shoulders. 

_Mingyu usually is better at this..._

“Now, everyone go head home safely for now.”

Jihoon has an idea of who the imposter is, but he decides to let them show up in front of him themselves. Based on a feeling, he decides to leave the dreamcatcher at the office and takes the amulet home.

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

The next morning comes and Jihoon’s face scrunches up in annoyance as a phone call wakes him up. He didn’t go home last night and fell asleep on his desk with his endless notes. With his eyes barely open, he picks up the phone grudgingly. 

“Hello?”

“Surprise~. You knew it was me, but you were waiting for me to show myself right?” 

Jihoon’s eyes flash wide open and he looks at his phone. It turns out that this is a video call and on the other end is none other than…

“Dr. Yoon...Of course, I knew. You hid your mark with the same powder you used on the lieutenant’s corpse yesterday.”

Jeonghan smirks and looks back at him with daring eyes. He looks completely different now. It’s as if he switched off his humanity. 

“You made the right choice to believe in that little officer.”

Jihoon nods firmly, “Of course. He may not be ready to be a profiler and is occasionally a hothead, but...he’s a good hard-working kid.”

“Aww how sweet, our Detective Lee has feelings!” Jeonghan says sarcastically. “So, tell me. How else did I pull this off?”

Jihoon thinks for a moment before answering, “You hid things from the autopsy reports. Like how each victim went into a cardiac arrest due to sudden high psychological stress before dying.”

“Mhm, go on~.”

“You moved out of your small village and worked hard to get your degree and become a great medical examiner near me that even I couldn’t refuse. Then you stay with us for about a year to gain our trust and start moving after Mingyu-.” Jihoon pauses as he realizes he referred to him by his first name again. 

Jeonghan notices it too. “Oh, Mingyu? You guys are on that level already? Glad to know that I chose the right hostage then.” While cackling, he steps to the side, revealing a tied up Mingyu with duct tape covering his mouth. "It was also a smart move to leave a scratch mark on him in the scientist's dream to further confuse you all."

Jihoon flinches when he sees him, gripping the sides of his phone tightly as he tries to look at their surroundings to find out where they’re located. However, Jeonghan’s smart and he chose an area with an all-white background. 

“You see this?” Jeonghan asks, taking out a syringe from his lab coat pocket. “This is the same one I used to inject your father back when I killed him. The drug makes you go into a deep sleep real fast. I wonder if little ol’ Mingyu here would like to test it out?”

Mingyu grunts as he tries to use his strength to push Jeonghan away, but the ropes around his body and the chair restricts him.

“What do you want?” Jihoon asks bluntly.

“Direct and straight to the point! That’s why I like you, Jihoon! I left you a little gift on Mingyu’s desk while you were sleeping. Your sleeping face was so adorable that I wanted to squeeze you to death! Literally. But that’s not as fun as this.”

Jihoon turns to look and finds a bottle of sleeping pills sitting beside the amulet.

“If you want to save your little partner here, come and join me in his dreams. Take these pills I’ve amplified and fight me where no one, but us can see. Inside your partner's head. You have five minutes to fall asleep or I’ll just kill him immediately,” Jeonghan says as his eyes darken and a senile smile appears. “See you there!”

He hangs up right after and Jihoon scrambles to grab the bottle and pop in a few pills in his mouth. As he grabs a bottle of water, he uses his other hand to hoop the amulet over his neck. Gulping down the pills, he uses his phone to send one last message. Then with a loud thud, he falls.

┬┴┬┴┤🔎├┬┴┬┴

When he awakes, he’s in the dream realm again. Except this time, they’re on a large pirate ship. This makes him question what kinds of dreams Mingyu is having these days.

“Hey, you made it!” 

Jihoon turns and sees a despicable Jeonghan with a tied up Mingyu on the other edge of the ship, by the...plank. He sees that Jeonghan is in his Alp transformation and is holding on to a long sharp pirate sword. 

“You know, I was surprised when I found out that you actually cared for Mingyu here. Or I guess, care about anyone in general. After all, you are your father’s son.”

Jihoon shakes his head. “You’re wrong. I don’t care for him.” 

Jeonghan snickers and a smirk forms on his face as he holds the sword to Mingyu’s neck. “Good.”

A shot fires and Jeonghan jumps as he looks down to see that it just barely misses hitting his right foot.

“Unfortunately, it’s become a lot more than that…” He says cocking the gun, that he swiftly pulled out from his inner hidden coat pocket, for another shot.

Jeonghan’s shocked expression relaxes into a sinister look as he chuckles deviously. “Really? A gun to a sword fight?” Jeonghan tuts. “I thought you were better than that.” 

“And I thought you would remember that I’m still a cop so I’m armed at all times. Don’t worry though.” Jihoon clicks on the safety and tosses it aside, letting it slide across the deck far away from them. “You’re right about me playing fair though. And show your true face, you coward.”

“Coward? That’s you. But I’ll oblige.” In a blink of an eye, Jeonghan transforms back into his human form. With a devious smirk he yells, “Excellent. Now think fast!” He underhandedly throws his sword in the air towards Jihoon who catches it with his fast reflexes. It takes Jeonghan a second to conjure a new sword in his own hands, surprising the tied up Mingyu behind him. Jeonghan tilts his head to the side, cracking it, before loosening up his shoulders. “Alright, now let’s dance.”

The two run at each other, sparks appearing as their swords clash. Luckily Jihoon has a few good childhood memories where he and his father would use go fencing. He’s able to keep up a good parry with Jeonghan, but he fails to make any attacks. 

They’re pretty neck-to-neck and it soon becomes a battle of endurance. As Jihoon grows tired, he realizes something that he didn’t before.

_This place...it seems familiar?_

He kicks Jeonghan and sends him staggering backwards, giving him enough time to look around. The pirate flag, the island across the ocean, the sails on the ship…

_This isn’t Mingyu’s dream...This is mine?_

As Jihoon comes to that realization, Jeonghan comes charging at him with full speed. Instead of using his sword, Jihoon extends his hand and sends him flying backwards to where Mingyu was with an unexplainable force. 

Jeonghan’s back hits the edge of the ship hard, and Jihoon confidently approaches him.

“So, you figured it out huh? That we’re not inside Mingyu’s head, but yours?”

Jihoon shrugs with a growing smile on his face. “It took me a while, but I know my head quite well. It’s a good thing this amulet also helps with lucid dreaming.”

As he speaks, Jeonghan extends his sword to do a sneak attack, but he gets knocked off his feet. While no one was looking, Mingyu had done his best to leap and used his weight to break the wooden chair and get free.

“Alright, you win,” Jeonghan says, giving up. He knows that he’s no match for the dreamer and the amulet. Do your worst. I guess it’s just the same cycle repeating itself. Your father killed mine and now you’ll be doing the same.”

Jihoon shakes his head, “Sorry, but you’re wrong.”

“Why? Because you’re a bigger coward than he was?”

Bending down, Jihoon gets to his eye-level as he grows serious. “Jeonghan, those people you killed...I know that they didn’t make the best choices in life, but...they’re just like you and me.” He thinks back to the victims of the cases and the information he and his team were able to gather.

“Ms. Park, from the club. She may have cheated off money from countless men, but she’s also someone’s daughter. Her father left her at a young age and her mother struggled so much that she resorted to prostitution for a few years. Her mother ended up remarrying to some drunkard and made sure to stay away from home as much as possible after entering college.”

Mingyu’s eyes enlarge as he experiences Jihoon actually sympathizing with someone for the very first time.

Jeonghan, on the other hand, is not impressed and presses his lips together into a thin line. “Don’t try to make me feel remorseful with some sob-”

“Composer Yoo,” Jihoon interrupts, with full determination to tell the stories of the dead. “Yes, he may have been guilty for chart manipulation. Which, by the way, I’m still very disappointed about. Even though he made his songs top charts and was a fraud, he was just a grandpa that wanted his grandchildren to hear his songs.”

“What? What kind of bullsh-”

“If you look at the lyrics of the songs he composed for, they’re actually letters to his grandkids that his children wouldn’t allow him to see. ‘I’m sorry, I just want to see you once.’ People thought that they were songs for lovers, but they were actually songs of regret for not being able to be a good enough man in the past to be someone’s grandpa. He thought that having his songs top the charts would find a way to them somehow.”

Jihoon notices as Jeonghan’s eyebrows slowly unfurrow and his expression softens. It seems to be working.

“Now the soldier, he was a huge dick when I knew him so it wasn’t a surprise that you went for him to be honest. Not only was he born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he was also born with his head up his ass.” Jihoon chuckles at his own digression, before continuing. “But...he was someone that constantly lived in the shadow of his parents. He was raised to be self-sufficient and reach high expectations, so he ended up doing what he did on that battlefield.”

Jihoon takes a deep breath before continuing, “And the girl at the coffee shop-”

“Enough!!” Jeonghan screams, “Just get to the point!!”

“Just like them, we get angry, we get depressed, we feel guilty, we become desperate, and...” He glances at Mingyu who is looking back at him with smiling eyes.“We get scared, and that’s...that’s okay.”

Jeonghan remembers feeling a pang of guilt when he saw a young Jihoon frantically try to shake his father awake and realizing that he was dead. Although the deed was done, he still was afraid and just kept killing to not feel that way anymore.

“Do you know why I’m afraid of facing you?” Jihoon asks, tearing him away from his thoughts.

Jeonghan lowers his head, feeling ashamed with tears brimming in his eyes. “Because you’re scared. Because I’m a monster.”

Jihoon shakes his head, “I don’t see you as a monster. All I see now is the young boy whose life got ruined by the hands of my father. And, I’m sorry...”

Jeonghan nods as tears start streaming down his face. “I just...I don’t think anyone could ever love or accept me again. Not after what I’ve become…”

“Well, you’re wrong. Someone does.”

Surprised, Jeonghan looks up at Jihoon with wide eyes. “Jihoon, really?”

Jihoon gives him a disgusted look, “Oh no, not me! Not me, but-” He looks up to the sky as if he’s expecting for something to happen, but nothing does.

“Really? I give this whole big speech and those two choose to be late?” He mutters to himself. “Perhaps I may have overestimated their deductive capabilities…”

A few seconds later, a familiar loud voice can be heard from the heavens. “Jeonghan hyung!!” 

Jeonghan looks up at the sky upon hearing the voice, his heart softening. “Seokmin-ah?” 

“We found them!!” Chan shouts to Jihoon from the real world. “They’re in that abandoned building next to the office! It took me a while to realize it from the screenshot you sent, but...We’re here!!”

Jeonghan momentarily changes his vision back to his eyes in the real world and watches as Seokmin approaches him carefully, outstretching his hand.

“Hyung...I know that you’ve done a lot of things you regret, but...If you let me, I’m willing to help you make things right again.”

Jeonghan looks down, trembling as he feels himself become vulnerable again. “Y-you would?” He croaks. 

Seokmin smiles fondly as he takes his hand into his, giving it a tight squeeze. “Of course, I will. I know that deep inside that you’re a good person. Just say the word and we’ll release you from this pain. But...know that you will have to turn yourself in.”

Feeling the warmth from Seokmin’s hands, Jeonghan finds the strength to look up and nod. “Do it.”

With that, Chan takes out the dreamcatcher and extends it towards Jeonghan. It begins to do its work as the demon gets sucked out of Jeonghan and gets caught in the webs of the dreamcatcher.

When Jeonghan disappears from the ship in the dream world, Jihoon and Mingyu know that the deed is done. 

As soon as he knows they’re safe, Jihoon hurries and helps Mingyu finish untying the ropes.

“Hey...I’m proud of you, really,” Mingyu says, looking at Jihoon fondly. “What you did out there was really something.”

Jihoon snorts. “What? For saving you from having to walk the plank?” 

Mingyu shakes his head. “No, for...That was the first time I’ve ever seen you speak about someone not based on cold hard facts and analysis, but the truth.”

“Yeah? Well, I’ll admit that having you around helped me out with that.” He meets Mingyu’s gaze and they share a sweet moment as they stare into each other’s eyes. It doesn’t last long though as Jihoon isn’t used to this kind of thing. He breaks off their eye contact first and points at the bead bracelet around Mingyu’s wrist. “So you know my story now, but what’s yours?”

Mingyu chuckles as a mischievous look appears on his face. “That? Well, that’s a dream to tell another time.”

Playfully punching him, he laughs hard for the first time in a while. "That's fair I suppose. I still have to expose my father for what he did to the press."

Mingyu rests his hand on Jihoon's shoulder, "We will do it. Together."

"It's something I have to do myself. Besides, I can't let you try to take part of my 'glory,'" Jihoon jokes, earning an eye roll from Mingyu.

"Wow, I thought we were going to start being nicer to each other."

Jihoon laughs before smiling fondly, as he whispers, "In your dreams."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading till the end! Hopefully, you guys caught some references of Seventeen memes, Among Us, and the actual mafia game! Again I apologize for the rushed parts as this is a huge project. This was also my first time writing in the present tense, using a lot of dialogue, writing more than 2 main characters, and writing a semi-spicy scene, so hopefully it turned out alright!
> 
> Please comment on your favorite parts or if you were able to guess who the killer was. Though I would've also already been suspicious of him from the start just cause it's him haha.
> 
> Fun fact that I left out on purpose: Putting a lemon in an Alps mouth would weaken them aka why Jeonghan doesn't like lemonade.
> 
> Explanations:  
> How the killer killed: Waited for victims to fall asleep and went inside their dreams to kill them in some way. What happens to them in the dream happens to them in real life.


End file.
